Setting up your system for bioinformatics (Git and Python)

1. Setting up Git

   1. You will need to have a GitHub account, which can register for an account here. You can learn more about Git and Git processes here.
   2. You will need to download and install a Git client - there are many choices in this area. I recommend SmartGit as a graphical-based Git client if you are a power-user, or GitHub Desktop if you are starting out.

2. Setting up Python programming platform

   1. Next, you will need to install Python programming platform on your computer / laptop. I will recommend Anaconda for Python 3.x installation, which you can get it from here. If you are using Windows, please remember to set the path.
   2. Then, you can launch Anaconda Navigator, which we will use to create an isolated Python environment for use (this is to prevent conflicts in various versions of libraries in various projects).
   3. Go to Environments on the leftmost panel and you should see that there is only one environment, called "base (root)". Click on "Create" and select the latest Python version (which is more than 3.8 or later). For the environment name, you can use whatever name you like but please remember it. My convention is this, if my Python version is 3.8, then I will name my environment as py38.
   4. To test that your Python environment is ready, go to Anaconda Prompt and type "activate py38" assuming that your environment is py38. If you see something like "(py38) C:\Users\Maurice Ling>", your Python environment should be functioning.