Data Science from Scratch: Intro & Setup
After diving head first into machine learning roughly 47 days ago, I’m taking a step away from libraries like scikit-learn, tensor flow, even matplotlib and numpy to go back to the basics (note: I provide a rationale [here](http://getwyze.com/44-days-of-data-recap/)).
Starting with this post, i’ll be documenting my progress through [Joel Grus’](https://twitter.com/joelgrus) **Data Science from Scratch** (DSFS).
As a newcomer to Python (coming from R), it took a minute to understand the Python 2 vs 3, and explore the various tooling options. I tried out Spyder, Pycharm, then finally settled on the Anaconda Distribution platform to access Jupyter notebooks.
Coming into this book, I knew Joel Grus [didn’t like notebooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jiPeIFXb6U).
**edit 10.29.2020**: Jeremy Howard of fast.ai offers a contrasting perspective. He *does* [like notebooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6sLbz37gk&feature=emb_title).
I’m going to wait till I get to the end of the book to make a personal verdict. As a relative newcomer to Python, i’m not attached to notebooks, but have found some features to be nice (i.e., in-line plotting). I’m open to having my mind changed and I’ll take the author at his word.
He states explicitly that its good discipline to “work in a virtual environment, and never use the ‘base’ Python installation” (p. 17). Fortunately, I had already gone through the process of setting up Python 3.8.5. My next task was to setup a virtual environment and install IPython. My IDE of choice is VSCode.
I’m happy to report that the setup process was relatively painless. I learned to setup a virtual environment for any work related to Data Science from Scratch and have started playing around with IPython.
The following are good to know: entering and exiting the virtual environment (I use conda). Entering and exiting an IPython session. Saving the IPython session, specific lines, to a `.py` file. Opening said `.py` file directly from terminal *within* VSCode and making edits. Creating and opening `.py` file within VSCode.
The commands I use to do the following with commented explanation are as follows:
In the next post, we’ll get into higher order functions.
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