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Getting started
This page contains detailed instructions on obtaining and configuring all of the necessary software used on the course. This page is in need of a massive update now that Enthought has released Canopy (which has replaced EPD).
Easiest way to get a good base Python installation is to install the Enthought Canopy Python Distribution (free for academics!). You will need to sign up for account using your university email and then wait for two emails. The first email contains an account verification link. The second email contains detailed instructions about how to install and update you EPD. The rub: visit the EPD repository page (making sure that you are logged in to your Enthought account!) and click the Repository Login button. This should take you to a list of EPD installers. Select either the 32 or 64-bit versions depending on your system.
Once you have downloaded and installed the EPD, open a command prompt (i.e., terminal window) and type python at the prompt. If the installation has been successful, you should see some information about the version of the EPD that you are running, the version of Python that you are running, and be taken to a Python prompt: >>>. Quit Python by typing control-z, and then type ipython at the prompt. You should be taken to the IPython prompt and given some information about the version of IPython that you are using. If you do not have version 0.13.1, the you will want to update.
To update to the most recent version of IPython, first quit IPython by typing either quit or control-z. Then at the command prompt type:
enpkg ipython
This will use the Enthought package installer to download and build the most recent version of IPython (currently 0.13.1). Do the same for Pandas:
enpkg pandas
should update you to the most recent version of Pandas. Still need to update versions of NumPy and SciPy and install PyMacLab. Before we can do that we need to download distribute and then pip. Instructions on obtaining and installing distribute and pip can be found on this blog (ignore the stuff about powershell and vitualenv for now). More info on how to install distribute and pip.
Currently most recent version of NumPy available using enpkg is 1.6.2. Most recent, stable version of NumPy is 1.7.0.
Currently most recent version of SciPy available using enpkg is 0.10.1. Most recent, stable version of SciPy is 0.11.0.
Unless you have a MatLab license, you will need to install octave in order use Dynare (you can still use Dynare++ from the command line to solve models, but estimation capabilities are limited to non-existent in Dynare++). The versions of Octave that are compatible with Dynare can be downloaded from the Dynare website.
In order to run Octave via the the command prompt each session, so your computer can find it within its know list of applications, you need to add the folder containing the .exe Octave application files to the system path. [To add a directory to the computer's system path in Windows] (http://www.mathworks.co.uk/support/solutions/en/data/1-15ZLK/index.html) simply...
- Open "My Computer"
- Click on "System Properties"
- Open Advanced system settings"
- In the "Advanced" tab, select "Environment Variables", and choose to edit "Path" listed under "System variables".
- At the end of this path, insert a semi-colon followed by the directory where Octave executables are saved. Default seems to be:
c:\octave\3.6.2_gcc4.6.2_20120609\bin. - Close all open command prompts and open a new terminal window. Type 'octave' at the prompt. If Octave loads, then congratulations! If not...check to make sure you followed steps 1-6 exactly (i.e., no typos, file path to Octave is correct, etc.)
Download and install the most recent stable release of Dynare (which will include Dynare++ as well!) from the Dynare website.
In order to run Dynare++ via the the command prompt each session, so your computer can find it within its know list of applications, you need to add the folder containing the Dynare++ executable.
- Open "My Computer"
- Click on "System Properties"
- Open Advanced system settings"
- In the "Advanced" tab, select "Environment Variables", and choose to edit "Path" listed under "System variables".
- At the end of this path, insert a semi-colon followed by the directory where Dynare++ executables are saved:
c:\dynare\dynare++. - Close all open command prompts and open a new terminal window. Type 'dynare++' at the prompt. If you see the dynare++ help menu consisting of a long list of command line options then you should be good to go.
The official instructions from Dynare on setting the Octave path are a bit complicated. I was initially unable to find the mentioned .octaverc file. However, I found a simpler solution by reading a bit of the octave user guide. Start Octave and type the following at the prompt:
addpath c:\dynare\4.3.2\matlab
followed by:
savepath()
Omitting the filename means that the path variable will be saved to ~\.octaverc.
Once you have installed both Octave and Dynare and set the above path variables correctly, then you will want to check that you Dynare installation is working. Easiest way to check the installation is to run one of the example model files included with Dynare by following these instructions.
If you want to do serious computational work, then you will want a serious text editor. Although I prefer Emacs (and thus provide detailed instructions for downloading and configuring Emacs), there are many other options.
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Download the most recent stable version of Emacs by following this link and selecting the following file:
emacs-24.2-bin-i386.zip -
Extract the contents of the downloaded folder into a file called
emacs-24.2in your root directory (i.e., the same place that you installed both Octave and Dynare). -
If you wish to place a shortcut to Emacs in your start menu (recommended), go to
emacs-24.2\binand run (i.e., double-click!)addpm.exe.
Version control is an important component of doing reproducible, computational research. Git is an excellent, distributed (i.e., good for collaborative research!) version control system. You can download both the bash shell version and a Windows GUI version from the Git downloads website.
During the installation, you will be asked if you want to add git to your system path so that it can be accessed directly from the command line. You will need to manually select this option during the install process.
For instructions on how to fork and download a repository from Github, see this page.