2. Installation
For PyMoDAQ-Femto to run smoothly, you need a Python distribution to be installed. Here are some advices. On all platforms Windows, MacOS or Linux, Anaconda or Miniconda is the advised distribution/package manager. Environments can be created to deal with different version of packages and isolate the code from other programs. Anaconda comes with a full set of installed scientific python packages while Miniconda is a very light package manager.
2.1. Setting up a new environment
Download and install Miniconda3.
Open a console, and cd to the location of the condabin folder, for instance:
C:\Miniconda3\condabin
Create a new environment:
conda create -n my_env python=3.8
, where my_env is your new environment name. This will create the environment with python version 3.8 that is currently the recommended one.Activate your environment so that only packages installed within this environment will be seen by Python:
conda activate my_env
2.2. Installing PyMoDAQ-Femto
Easiest part: in your newly created and activated environment enter: pip install pymodaq_femto
. This will install the
latest PyMoDAQ-Femto available version and all its dependencies. For a specific version
enter: pip install pymodaq_femto==x.y.z
.
2.3. Launching PyMoDAQ-Femto
During its installation, two scripts have been installed within you environment directory, this means you can start PyMoDAQ-Femto’s two main functionalities directly writing in your console either:
simulator
retriever
Alternatively, you can specify the full commands (The -m option tells python to look within its site-packages folder, where you’ve just installed pymodaq_femto):
python -m pymodaq_femto.simulator
python -m pymodaq_femto.retriever
2.4. Creating shortcuts on Windows
Python packages can easily be started from the command line (see Launching PyMoDAQ-Femto). However, Windows users will probably prefer using shortcuts on the desktop. Here is how to do it (Thanks to Christophe Halgand for the procedure):
First create a shortcut (see Fig. 2.1) on your desktop (pointing to any file or program, it doesn’t matter)
Right click on it and open its properties (see Fig. 2.2)
On the Start in field (“Démarrer dans” in french and in the figure), enter the path to the condabin folder of your miniconda or anaconda distribution, for instance:
C:\Miniconda3\condabin
On the Target field, (“Cible” in french and in the figure), enter this string:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k conda activate my_env & python -m pymodaq_femto.retriever
. This means that your shortcut will open the windows’s command line, then execute your environment activation (conda activate my_env bit), then finally execute and start Python, opening the correct pymodaq_femto file (here retriever.py, starting the Retriever module, python -m pymodaq_femto.retriever bit)You’re done!
Do it again for each PyMoDAQ-Femto’s module you want (to get the correct python file and it’s path, see Launching PyMoDAQ-Femto).