richardsalex · August 5, 2016 16:08 · Aug 5, 2016
diff --git a/python_env.md b/python_env.md
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+# Installing Python and Jupyter Notebooks on OS X
+
+For the most part, everything will be done using OS X's Terminal.
+
+We need to install the following (in this order) to get up and running:
+
+1. [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/) (a package manager for OS X)
+2. Python (via Homebrew)
+3. Virtualenv (via Python's pip)
+4. Virtualenvwrapper (also via Python's pip)
+
+We'll also need to create/alter your `.bash_profile` so that every time you open up a new Terminal window, you'll have access to these virtual environments and commands. The following will need to be added to whatever's already there or put inside a blank text file and saved as `.bash_profile` inside of your user folder (`/Users/<username>/`).
+
+~~~bash
+export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/Envs
+source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh
+~~~
+
+### Next steps
+
+From there, we'll create a new virtual environment and install a few third-party Python libraries like *[Jupyter](http://jupyter.org/)*, *[requests](http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/)* and *[BeautifulSoup](https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/)* which can help with scraping tasks.
+
+The whole virtual environment thing is probably overkill for someone just starting out; I don't even really run into situations where it's critical. It's something developers use to keep different versions of third-party libraries and their dependencies (other libraries that help them work) from conflicting with each other. 
+
+It's like starting with a clean slate. If you mess something up, it's typically going to be limited to the virtual environment, too, so you can just delete it and create another. 
+
+So what's the deal with *virtualenvwrapper*? It basically gives you [a set of commands](https://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) which make it much easier to hop in and out of these virtual environments.