Setup

Setup

This guide helps you set up your environment for the AI/ML tutorials.
We support two paths:

• Rust for performance and safety.
• Python for ecosystem richness and beginner-friendliness.

Choose the language you prefer (or follow both for cross-learning).
Both setups include installing the language, libraries, IDE, and verifying with a simple program.

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Setup with Rust

Step 1: Install Rust

1. Visit rust-lang.org.
2. Install rustup:
   On Unix-like systems (macOS/Linux):

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

   On Windows, follow the instructions on the website.
3. Update Rust:

   rustup update

4. Verify installation:

   rustc --version
   cargo --version

Step 2: IDE Setup

Use Visual Studio Code (VS Code):

• Install VS Code.
• Add the rust-analyzer extension.

Step 3: Create a Rust Project

cargo new rust_ml_tutorial
cd rust_ml_tutorial
cargo run

Expect “Hello, world!” output.

Step 4: Install ML Libraries

Add dependencies in Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
linfa = "0.7"
nalgebra = "0.32"
tch = "0.13"
polars = "0.32"
rust-bert = "0.24"
actix-web = "4"
plotters = "0.3"
ndarray = "0.15"
rand = "0.8"
statrs = "0.16"

Run:

cargo build

Step 5: Verify Rust Setup

Test with a matrix:

use nalgebra::Matrix2;

fn main() {
    let matrix = Matrix2::new(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0);
    println!("Matrix:\n{}", matrix);
}

cargo run

---

Setup with Python

Step 1: Install Python

• Install Python 3.11+ from python.org or use Anaconda.
• Verify installation:

  python --version
  pip --version

Step 2: Create a Virtual Environment

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # macOS/Linux
venv\Scripts\activate      # Windows

Step 3: Install ML Libraries

pip install numpy pandas scikit-learn torch tensorflow matplotlib seaborn jupyter

Step 4: IDE Setup

Use VS Code or Jupyter Notebook:

• Install VS Code.
• Add the Python extension.
• Or, run notebooks:

  jupyter notebook

Step 5: Verify Python Setup

import numpy as np

matrix = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4]])
print("Matrix:\n", matrix)

Run:

python main.py

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Troubleshooting

• Rust issues: reinstall via rust-lang.org.
• Python issues: ensure pip is updated (pip install --upgrade pip).
• Library conflicts: use cargo clean (Rust) or pip uninstall/pip freeze (Python).
• IDE issues: check extensions (rust-analyzer, Python).

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Next Steps

• For Rust: continue to Rust Basics.
• For Python: continue to Python Basics.

Further Reading

• Rust: nalgebra.org, Hands-On Machine Learning (Ch. 2)
• Python: scikit-learn docs, Deep Learning with Python by Chollet