How to Setup Mac for Python Development

“Close-up of lines of code on a computer screen” by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash

CHANGELOG:

• updated on 11/9/2021: add more pyenv setup
• updated on 1/8/2021: add pyenv and VSCode
• updated on 9/272019
• Originally written on August 30, 2016

This is how I set up Mac for Python development and data analysis.

Install Homebrew

http://brew.sh

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Setup Python

It’s much easier to manage different versions of python using pyenv (https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv), which you can install using:

brew update
brew install pyenv

Check the different python versions you can install:

pyenv install --list

Install a specific python version (choose from the list above):

pyenv install 3.8.1

Set the global python version:

$ pyenv global 3.8.1

Then, check the python versions installed:

$ pyenv versions
system
3.7.9
* 3.8.1 (set by /Users/harrywang/.pyenv/version)
3.9.0

You may also need to do the following to make sure the pyenv python will be executed instead of the Mac default one:

eval "$(pyenv init --path)"

To make the above command work after reboot, run

vim ~/.zshrc

and add eval "$(pyenv init --path)" to the file.

if you want to use a specific python version within a specific folder, go to that folder and set a local python version:

pyenv local 3.7.9

Setup Github

https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git/

Once completed, try the following two commands to verify:

$ git config --global user.name
Harry Wang
$ git config --global user.email
harryjwang@gmail.com

Caching your GitHub password in Git: https://help.github.com/articles/caching-your-github-password-in-git/

Setup Virtual Environment

See why you need virtual environments: https://realpython.com/python-virtual-environments-a-primer/

Python 2:

Install virtualenv (https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/)

$ sudo pip install virtualenv

To create a virtual environment:
- go to the folder of the project
- generate a venv folder for the virtual environment:
$ virtualenv venv
- activate the environment:
$ source venv/bin/activate
- install packages only in the newly created environment (a requirement.txt file is often used to include the packages):
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Python 3:

To create a virtual environment:
- go to the folder of the project
- generate a venv folder for the virtual environment:
$ python3 -m venv venv
- activate the environment:
$ source venv/bin/activate
- install packages only in the newly created environment (a requirement.txt file is often used to include the packages):
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

You can check out my other repo for an example: https://github.com/harrywang/house-price-prediction

Setup Jupyter

http://jupyter.org

To set up a system-wide juypter using pip or pip3:

Python 2:

pip install jupyter

Run Jupyter: jupyter notebook

Python 3:

pip3 install jupyter

Run Jupyter: jupyter notebook

If you want to use add a virtual environment to the system-wide Jupyter, you can follow the tutorial https://janakiev.com/blog/jupyter-virtual-envs/

I often install Jupyter in the virtual environment by including it in the requirement.txt file aforementioned.

Setup VSCode

https://code.visualstudio.com/

Just download the installation package and install

Setup MySQL locally

Install MySQL: brew install mysql, which installs MySQL without a password.

To start MySQL: mysql.server start and then connect: mysql -uroot

We've installed your MySQL database without a root password. To secure it run:
    mysql_secure_installation

MySQL is configured to only allow connections from localhost by default

To connect run:
    mysql -uroot

To have launchd start mysql now and restart at login:
  brew services start mysql
Or, if you don't want/need a background service you can just run:
  mysql.server start

If MySQL does not work, try the following to completely reset the database — Warning: you will lose all your data.

brew remove mysql
brew cleanup
launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql

brew install mysql
mysql.server start # no sudo!