Algorithms For Dummies

 

   

  PART 1 

 Getting Started

that resembles machine code, the language used natively by computers (but not 

understandable by most humans).

This book uses Python for a number of good reasons, including the community 

support it enjoys and the fact that it’s full featured, yet easy to learn. Python is 

also a verbose language, resembling how a human creates instructions rather than 

how a computer interprets them. The first section of this chapter fills in the details 

of why this book uses Python for the examples, but also tells you why other 

options  are  useful  and  why  you  may  need  to  consider  them  as  your  journey 

continues.

When you speak a human language, you add nuances of meaning by employing 

specific word combinations that others in your community understand. The use of 

nuanced meaning comes naturally and represents a dialect. In some cases, dia-

lects also form because one group wants to demonstrate a difference with another 

group. For example, Noah Webster wrote and published A Grammatical Institute of 

the English Language,  in  part  to  remove  the  influence  of  the  British  aristocracy 

from the American public (see 

http://connecticuthistory.org/noah-webster- 

and-the-dream-of-a-common-language/

 for details). Likewise, computer lan-

guages often come with flavors, and vendors purposely add extensions that make 

their product unique to provide a reason to buy their product over another 

offering.

The second section of the chapter introduces you to various Python distributions, 

each of which provides a Python dialect. This book uses Analytics Anaconda, which 

is the product you should use to obtain the best results from your learning experi-

ence. Using another product, essentially another dialect, can cause problems in 

making  the  examples  work  —  the  same  sort  of  thing  that  happens  sometimes 

when someone who speaks British English talks to someone who speaks American 

English. However, knowing about other distributions can be helpful when you 

need to obtain access to features that Anaconda may not provide.

The next three sections of this chapter help you install Anaconda on your plat-

form. The examples in this book are tested on the Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows 

platforms.  They  may  also  work  with  other  platforms,  but  the  examples  aren’t 

tested on these platforms, so you have no guarantee that they’ll work. By install-

ing Anaconda using the procedures found in this chapter, you reduce the chance 

of  getting  an  installation  that  won’t  work  with  the  example  code.  To  use  the 

examples in this book, you must install Anaconda 4.2.0 with support for Python 3.5. 

Other versions of Anaconda and Python may not work with the example code 

because, as with human language dialects, they could misunderstand the instruc-

tions that the code provides.

Algorithms  work  with  data  in  specific  ways.  To  see  particular  output  from  an 

algorithm, you need consistent data. Fortunately, the Python community is busy 

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CHAPTER 3