Most examples in this book will use the Jupyter Notebook interface. This is a browser-based interface that integrates computations, graphics, and other forms of media. Notebooks can be easily shared and published, for example, http://nbviewer.ipython.org/ provides a simple publication path.

It is not, however, absolutely necessary to use the Jupyter interface to run the examples in this book. We strongly encourage, however, that you at least experiment with the notebook and its many features. The Jupyter Notebook interface makes it possible to mix formatted, descriptive text with code cells that evaluate at the same time. This feature makes it suitable for educational purposes, but it is also useful for personal use as it makes it easier to add comments and share partial progress before writing a full report. We will sometimes refer to a Jupyter Notebook as just a notebook.

To start the notebook interface, run the following command line from the shell or Anaconda command prompt:

jupyter notebook

The notebook server will be started in the directory where the command is issued. After a while, the notebook interface will appear in your default browser. Make sure that you are using a standards-compliant browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari. Once the Jupyter dashboard shows on the browser, click on the New button on the upper-right side of the page and select Python 3. After a few seconds, a new notebook will open in the browser. A useful place to learn about the notebook interface is http://jupyter.org.