Windows

The first requirement is to install Python 3.8 or 3.9. Our recommendation is to download and install Python from the official website, with the following steps.

Python installation

Step 1: Download Python

To start, go to python.org/downloads and then click on the button to download the version of Python you need (3.8 or 3.9).

Step 2: Run the .exe file

Next, run the .exe file that you just downloaded, and then follow the installation instructions.

Note that you should also check the box to add Python to the Path, and make sure that pip is also installed (you can check this by running pip help). If not, use the below command to install:

python3 -m ensurepip --upgrade

Bitfount Installation

Once Python is installed, you should be able to install bitfount from pypi.

We recommend that you install bitfount in a virtual environment. You should first install virtualenv as follows:

pip install virtualenv

And then create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m virtualenv <path_to_virtual_environment><path_to_virtual_environment>\Scripts\activate

Either in the virtual environment or on your local machine you can then proceed to install bitfount.

pip install bitfount

If you are planning on using the bitfount package with Jupyter Notebooks we recommend you install extra tutorials dependencies via bitfount[tutorials] which will make sure you are running compatible Jupyter dependencies.

pip install "bitfount[tutorials]"

Next Steps

Once you’ve installed Bitfount, whoever will provide the data for analysis must connect the data to a Pod. See For Data Custodians for detailed instructions.

If data is already connected to a Pod for analysis and you wish to train models on or query it, see For Data Scientists.