Setting up Python and VS Code

This is how I setup my Python environment alongside Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on a fresh Windows/Linux installation.

Python Installation

1. For Windows, download the latest Python installer from the official website. For Linux, Python is usually pre-installed, but if it isn’t installed, you can install it using:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install python3 python3-pip
   

2. If in Linux, add the following to the ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile file:

    export PATH="$PATH:~/.local/bin"
   

3. Install the essential packages:

    pip install --default-timeout=100 matplotlib numpy pandas scipy sympy astropy tabulate uncertainties jupyter notebook ipympl ipykernel scikit-learn tqdm plotly
    pip install seaborn keras tensorflow cupy-cuda116 pysimplegui openpyxl # these are optional packages, install only if needed
   

Visual Studio Code Installation

1. For Windows, download the latest VS Code installer from the official website. For Linux, VS Code can be installed using the following commands:

    sudo apt-get install wget gpg
    wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpg
    sudo install -D -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg
    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'
    rm -f packages.microsoft.gpg
       
    sudo apt install apt-transport-https
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install code