6.01SC | Spring 2011 | Undergraduate

Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science I

Software and Tools

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Software

In 6.01, we will use the Python programming language and a collection of 6.01 Python modules that were written specifically for 6.01. These programs are available for installation on your personal computers (see links below).

You’ll also need an editor and/or development environment for writing and debugging your programs. In 6.01, we will be using IDLE, a programming environment specially designed for Python programming and included with the Python distribution. It’s also possible to use Emacs if you prefer.

You can install the 6.01 software on your personal computer if your operating system is GNU/Linux, Windows (7/XP), or MacOS X. In all cases, you will need Python version 2.6.x (other versions will NOT function properly). The 6.01 software has been tested with version 2.6.6, but version 2.6.7 should also be fine.

More detailed installation notes are available for the following operating systems.

Installing on GNU/Linux  
Installing on MacOS X  
Installing on Windows 7/XP (32-bit)  
Installing on Windows 7/XP (64-bit)

Software Documentation

The 6.01 Software Documentation describes all the modules included in the lib601 software. If you need to look up information about any class, method, or attribute in the lib601 software, this is the exhaustive reference.

6.01 Software Documentation

Lab References

6.01 uses the ActivMedia Pioneer 3-DX robot in design labs. Some components of design labs cannot be completed without these robots, such as explorations and mappings using sonar arrays, design challenges related to coordination between the robot head and body controls, and articulation of the disparities between simulation and actual performance.

However, the majority of the Design Lab material can be covered without access to a physical robot. These references describe and document the hardware and software used in the 6.01 lab.

Python/IDLE Resources

Python Tutorial, by Guido Van Rossum

This is the standard tutorial reference by the inventor of Python. Everyone should have a bookmark for it in their browser for reference. For learning programming, however, start with Think Python, below.

Think Python: An Introduction to Software Design, by Allen Downey. (PDF - 1.0MB)

This is a good introductory text that uses Python to present basic ideas of computer science and programming. It’s especially recommended if you don’t have a lot of programming experience and a good thing to skim even if you do.

Official IDLE Documentation

The official Python IDLE documentation, including keyboard shortcuts, debugging, etc.

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This course makes use of Athena, MIT’s UNIX-based computing environment. OCW does not provide access to this environment.

The laptops in the lab use Athena software that is built on Ubuntu version 10.4. We expect the 6.01 software to work on other distributions, but other distributions have not been tested.

A. Get Python, TK, and Numpy

Make sure that your machine is running Python 2.6.6. You can use either your distribution’s package manager (apt, synaptic, yum, etc.) to download and install the python package (make sure it’s version 2.6.6), or you can compile Python from source.

You should also install tkinter, a Python package that is necessary for running soar. Installation will be dependent on your distribution. For recent Debian-based distros, there is a package (python-tk) that you can install with apt. On other distributions, you should be able to find an appropriate package to install as well.

You will also need to install numpy, a Python package, for some of the assignments. Again, installation will be dependent on your distribution. For recent Debian-based distros, there is a package (python-numpy) that you can install with apt. For other distributions, you can either compile from source or find the appropriate package for your distribution.

B. Get Idle or Emacs

You’ll also need Idle or Emacs (and it won’t hurt to have both). If your Python distribution did not come with Idle (type “idle” at a command line to see if it’s defined), there’s a package (idle) that you can install with apt. Since you’ll be starting Idle a lot, you’ll find it convenient to create a launcher for and place it in a menu or on the menu bar.

C. Get 6.01 Software

Download the 6.01 modules to a convenient directory (e.g., ~/Desktop). Open a terminal window, navigate to the Desktop directory by typing a command of the form

> cd ~/Desktop

Then unpack the modules by typing

> tar xvzf lib601-3-500.tar.gz

Then change directories and do the installation with

> cd lib601-3-500
> sudo python setup.py install

You can now delete all of the files created by this operation (i.e., ~/Desktop/lib601-3-500.tar.gz and its associated directory tree). You should now be able to use the lib601 files from Python and to run soar by typing soar at a terminal command prompt.

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Note: Python is pre-installed on MacOS X, but it is often an older version. For this class we will be using Python 2.6.x.

  • First open a Terminal window (from the Applications/Utilities folder). Type python and see whether it says Python 2.6.x. If not, follow the Install Python instructions.
  • If you have Python 2.6, type import numpy. If that fails, then follow the Installing Numpy instructions.

A. Install Python

You can get a Python 2.6.x DMG installer (Mac Installer disk image) here: Python 2.6.6

B. Installing Numpy

You should also install numpy, a package that will be used in later labs. This file is available here: numpy 1.6

C. Installing 6.01 Libraries and Soar

Download the 6.01 modules to a convenient directory (e.g., ~/Desktop). Open a Terminal window, navigate to the Desktop directory by typing a command of the form

> cd ~/Desktop

Usually the download process will open and expand this file into a directory. If you don’t see a directory lib601-3-500, then unpack the modules by typing

> tar xvzf lib601-3-500.tar.gz

Then change directories and do the installation with

> cd lib601-3-500
> sudo python setup.py install

You can now delete all of the files created by this operation (i.e., ~/Desktop/lib601-3-500.tar.gz and its associated directory tree). You should now be able to run soar by typing soar at a terminal command prompt.

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A. Download the Software

Download the following files to your desktop:

B. Install the Python Language

Double click on the Python installer to begin the Python installation process.

  1. In reply to the options: install the software for all users, use the default directory (C:\Python26\) and in general just click “next” to accept the defaults.
  2. Wait for the installation to finish and click “finish”. Note that installing Python will also automatically install idle.

C. Check that Python Works

  1. Find Python 2.6 in your menu of programs and run “idle”. This should produce a window that says “Python 2.6.x …” and ends with a prompt (»>)
  2. At the prompt, type
    >» 2**10
    and press Enter. The result should be 210, or 1024. Try computing 21000 and verify that this works as well.
  3. If this works, you’ve (probably) successfully installed Python. Exit idle by selecting exit from the file menu. Ask for help if something has gone wrong.
  4. Download idle-n.zip and extract the .bat file. This file will let you start idle with the “-n” flag that allows it to generate plots properly.

D. Install Numpy

Double-click on the numpy installer on your desktop (numpy-1.5.1-win32-superpack-python2.6.exe). Accept the defaults (i.e., just click “next”), wait for the installation to complete, and click “finish”.

E. Install the 6.01 Software: lib601, soar, and CMax

The links to download the lib601, soar, and CMax installer are at the top of this page.

Double-click on the soar installer on your desktop (lib601-3-500.win32.exe). Accept the defaults (i.e., just click “next”), wait for the installation to complete, and click “finish”.

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, do NOT simply double-click to run these installers! You MUST right-click on the installers and choose “Run as Administrator”; otherwise you will see error messages during the installation, and soar will not appear on your Start menu.

F. Try it!

To start soar, simply run soar from Start->Programs. To start CMax, run CMax from Start->Programs.

You can now remove the installer files that you downloaded to your desktop.

If you just want to write Python scripts, without needing to use soar, you can open up idle directly. Go to Start | All Programs | Python 2.6 | idle (Python GUI). This will bring up the idle editor that you use during lab.

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A. Download the Software

Download the following files to your desktop:

B. Install the Python Language

Double click on the Python installer to begin the Python installation process.

  1. In reply to the options: install the software for all users, use the default directory (C:\Python26\) and in general just click “next” to accept the defaults.
  2. Wait for the installation to finish and click “finish”. Note that installing Python will also automatically install idle.

C. Check that Python Works

  1. Find Python 2.6 in your menu of programs and run “idle”. This should produce a window that says “Python 2.6.x …” and ends with a prompt (»>)
  2. At the prompt, type
    >» 2**10
    and press Enter. The result should be 210, or 1024. Try computing 21000 and verify that this works as well.
  3. If this works, you’ve (probably) successfully installed Python. Exit idle by selecting exit from the file menu. Ask for help if something has gone wrong.
  4. Download idle-n.zip and extract the .bat file. This file will let you start idle with the “-n” flag that allows it to generate plots properly.

D. Install Numpy

Double-click on the numpy installer on your desktop (numpy-1.5.1-win32-superpack-python2.6.exe ). Accept the defaults (i.e., just click “next”), wait for the installation to complete, and click “finish”.

E. Install the 6.01 Software: lib601, soar, and CMax

The links to download the lib601, soar, and CMax installer are at the top of this page

Double-click on the soar installer on your desktop (lib601-3-500.win-amd64.exe). Accept the defaults (i.e., just click “next”), wait for the installation to complete, and click “finish”.

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, do NOT simply double-click to run these installers! You MUST right-click on the installers and choose “Run as Administrator”; otherwise you will see error messages during the installation, and soar will not appear on your Start menu.

F. Try it!

To start soar, simply run soar from Start->Programs. To start CMax, run CMax from Start->Programs.

You can now remove the installer files that you downloaded to your desktop.

If you just want to write Python scripts, without needing to use soar, you can open up idle directly. Go to Start | All Programs | Python 2.6 | idle (Python GUI). This will bring up the idle editor that you use during lab.

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