ICS 33 Fall 2024
Project 0: History of Modern
Installation and Configuration on macOS
Introduction
This document explains how to install the ICS 33 development environment on a machine running macOS as its operating system. You'll need to be sure you pay attention to small details as you follow through them.
Step 1: Show file name extensions
The first step is not to install a software package at all, but to be sure you've configured a macOS setting so that it's not set in a way that's fine for everyday users, but very troublesome for those of us who write programs or do other serious work. When macOS displays its filenames, it can sometimes hide the "file name extension" (i.e., the part of the filename that follows the last dot), so that a file named alex.txt will simply have its name displayed as alex instead, with an icon used to visually differentiate one "type" of file from another.
This default is fine for casual users, but is certain to cause us problems in this course — and routinely causes problems for students in courses where there is programming involved — so everyone needs to turn this off, which is easy to do.
Seriously! Do this! You'll be very glad you did; as a programmer, filenames and their extensions are often relevant to the work you're doing, so it's important to see filenames as they are.
Step 2: Downloading and installing Python
If you've taken previous coursework in Python, you may already have a version of Python installed on your machine, but it will be important that you use the right version in this course. As of this writing, the latest release of Python 3.12 is Python 3.12.6 macOS 64-bit universal2 installer, which is available at the following link.
Before you run this, it's not a bad idea to uninstall any other version you already have installed. While different versions of Python can safely coexist on a system in some cases, they do cause some confusion, so if you don't have a specific reason to maintain multiple versions, it's easiest to keep just one. You can uninstall Python just as you would any other macOS application.
When you run this, the installer's defaults are all reasonable, so there's nothing that needs configure. Proceed through the installer's screens, accepting licenses and other default settings.
At the conclusion of the installation, it's a good idea to follow the advice on the last screen: Opening the Finder window, navigating to Applications and then Python 3.12, and double-clicking on the Install Certificates icon (which will be named Install Certificates.command if you're no longer hiding file name extensions) to install a set of root certificates that will allow Python 3.12 to use HTTPS to communicate with web sites and web services.
When you're done, you can feel free to delete the Python installer you downloaded; you won't need it again.
Step 3: Downloading and installing Git
The next thing you'll need to install is a version control system called Git, which we'll be using throughout the quarter. Fortunately, macOS provides a straightforward way to install Git — along with a number of other common tools related to software development — via a package known as Xcode Command Line Tools. Installing XCode Command Line Tools will install Git, if you don't have it already.
Installation is straightforward. Open the Terminal application, then, at the ensuing prompt, type the command xcode-select --install. (The spacing, capitalization, and dashes are all important there.) Once that command has completed successfully, Git (and the other Xcode Command Line Tools) will have been downloaded and installed.
Step 4: Downloading, installing, and licensing PyCharm Professional
The only remaining thing you'll need to install is an integrated development environment called PyCharm, which we'll be using for our work this quarter. Specifically, we'll be using PyCharm Professional, which is the full-fledged version of PyCharm; some of its fancy "professional" features will be important in this course
PyCharm Professional is available at the following link.
Choose macOS as your operating system, then click the button titled .dmg (Intel) to select a download of either an Intel or Apple Silicon version of PyCharm Professional. (You'll choose this depending on what kind of processor you have on your Mac; most new Macs have Apple Silicon processors these days, but many older ones have Intel processors.) Be sure, too, that you're downloading PyCharm Professional and not PyCharm Community. (Don't worry about cost, though; UCI students can obtain PyCharm Professional and license it for use in a course like this one, free of charge.) This will download the PyCharm Professional installer.
The installer is straightforward, asking you to drag a PyCharm icon into your Applications folder. Do that and PyCharm Professional will be installed.
When you're done, you can feel free to delete the PyCharm Professional installer you downloaded; you won't need it again.
Licensing your PyCharm Professional installation
After you've installed PyCharm Professional, launch it. The first time you start it up, you'll be asked to accept a user agreement, and to decide whether you're willing to share data with JetBrains (the company that builds and sells PyCharm). You may be told that your request will not be processed immediately (i.e., that it will require human review), so you can expect there to be some delay in receiving a response. At that point, you'll have one more hurdle to clear: PyCharm Professional needs a license. Fortunately, UCI students can obtain a license free of charge, but that'll require completing a couple of administrative tasks.
First, visit the link below, which is a form you'll need to fill out to apply for a JetBrains Educational Pack, which is essentially a license to use PyCharm Professional (and all other JetBrains development environments, if you'd like) for non-commercial purposes.
Note that you'll need to give them a valid university email address — your @uci.edu email address is almost certainly going to be the right choice. You may be told that your request will not be processed immediately (i.e., that it will require human review), so you can expect there to be some delay in receiving a response. We've had students report that this can take as long as a week, though there's no need to panic; you'll have installed a 30-day trial version, so you won't need to get the license settled immediately, though you'll need to remember to finish this process, as we will not be offering due date extensions to students who claim to have had their trial version expire.
Ultimately, you should receive an email at that address, asking you to confirm your request and create a JetBrains Account. Follow those instructions and get your JetBrains Account created.
Once you've got your JetBrains Account set up, you can now proceed with licensing your PyCharm Professional installation.
That's it. You're in business. PyCharm Professional is now licensed.
Congratulations!
Nice work! You should now have all of the tools you need to proceed with your work this quarter.