How to install Friendly Sam

Get Python 3

Friendly Sam is developed in Python 3 (at the time of this writing, Python 3.4). Download and install it now, if you haven’t already.

Use a virtual environment

It is highly recommended that you use a virtual environment. It’s not strictly necessary, but if you choose not to, there is a risk that you will have conflicts between different versions of the packages that Friendly Sam and other Python packages depend on. Google for python virtualenv if you want to learn more. If not, you can also do it the way I do, using vex.

  • If you are on Windows
    1. Open a command prompt.
    2. Make sure you have the latest setuptools by running pip install setuptools --upgrade
    3. Install vex by running pip install --user vex
    4. Create a virtual environment named my_project_name and enter it by running vex -m --python C:\Python34\python.exe my_project_name cmd

    Now, whenever you want to use your virtual environment, open a command prompt and run vex my_project_name cmd.

  • If you are on Linux

    Basically, you follow the instructions for Windows above but exchange C:\Python34\python.exe for something more suitable, and then do vex my_project_name bash instead. Also see the docs for vex if you have problems.

Install Friendly Sam

Assuming you have entered/activated your Python virtual environment, or wherever you want to install it, open a command prompt/shell and run the command:

pip install friendlysam

Optional dependencies

If you want to add support for pandas related stuff, or for saving and loading models using dill, do one of:

pip install friendlysam[pandas]
pip install friendlysam[pickling]
pip install friendlysam[pandas,pickling]