A quick and dirty reference for those who want to complete the notmnist tutorials on their Macs without using Docker containers.

First, install brew. Once ready, download python and prepare the virtualenv. In my case, it’s going to reside in ~/venv/jupyter:

➜ ~ brew install python3

➜ ~ pip3 install virtualenv

➜ ~ rehash

➜ dev virtualenv venv/jupyter

➜ dev source venv/jupyter/bin/activate
 (jupyter) ➜ dev

If successful, your prompt should change to (jupyter) as in the excerpt above.

You are now ready to install all the required packages:

(jupyter) ➜ dev pip install imageio matplotlib numpy six sklearn scipy tensorflow jupyter

(jupyter) ➜ jupyter rehash

All done! Launch your notebook with “jupyter-notebook” and dive into notmnist. Happy coding!