CSCI 1101 Environment Setup

This page explains how to configure your computing environment for CSCI 1101. In particular, you need two pieces of software installed: the Wing101 IDE and Python 3. The steps below will walk you through setting up this software so that you can work on your own laptop. However, the procedure is slightly different depending on whether your laptop is a Mac or a Windows PC.

If you are working on a lab machine, everything should already be set up, but you should still check that everything works by jumping to step 3.

You only need to perform this procedure once - once Wing is configured, you do not need to do any further setup unless you switch to a different machine (in which case you will need to do this procedure again).

Step 1: Install Python 3 and Wing101

Go to http://python.org/downloads.
Click the button to download Python 3 (whatever minor version is fine, e.g., 3.5.2). Do not click the button to download Python 2!
Once the download is finished, run the installer to install Python 3.
Go to http://wingware.com/downloads/wingide-101.
Click the button to download the Wing101 installer.
Once the download is finished, run the installer to install Wing101.

Step 2: Configure Wing101

Skip this section if you are using a Windows laptop. If you are using a Mac laptop, follow these steps:

Open Wing101. The application is located in Macintosh HD, then Applications.
Go to the Edit menu, then select Configure Python.
Change the Python Executable option to Custom, then set it to the following:
```
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin/python3
```
Change the Python Path option to Custom, then click Insert and add the following:
```
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5
```
You can delete the existing path (the one that was there before you inserted the above).

Step 3: Test the Installation

To test that everything is working (everyone should do this), follow these steps:

If Wing101 is already open, quit it.
Reopen Wing101.
Type the following in the Python Shell window within Wing (lower right corner), exactly as shown below:
```
print('It works!')
```
Push enter and you should see the text 'It works!' (without the quotes) appear underneath. If so, everything works and you're done. If you got a nasty looking error message instead, something isn't setup correctly and you should ask an instructor for help.