Some University IT genius told me that installing python on to 20 university mac PCs was too much hassle, so I should teach the command line and intro to python through a Windows VM - kill me :rage:
@dadegroot Ah good to know. 2.7 is perfect for intro level stuff. I'll keep up the good fight. I teach journalism students so the technical level is very low. Thanks again
@karrie Good luck.
@karrie Ouch. So, wait, if it's a Windows VM, what's the host OS?
@aendrew os x
@karrie Any way you can use the system default Python ~2.7.5, which is installed with macOS? http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/106125/what-versions-of-python-are-pre-installed-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks
@aendrew absolutely. It's intro level stuff, 2.7 is just fine. Also, we're teaching them some basic unix and how to grep/cat/merge csvs from the command line.
@karrie Yeah, I don't see any reason not just to use the default OS X stuff if the uni is going to be a pain about installing new software. The one thing to consider is whether they can use Pip to install packages, which they might not as unprivileged users. In that case, might be worth asking to get Virtualenv pre-installed; that's a heck of a lot easier than Windows VMs!
@aendrew thanks Aendrew, will do!
@karrie but python is part of macOS by default. Admittedly 2.7 rather than 3.5 but it's still python.