installation

The software and program files necessary to run the seniority_list program are free to download and use.

dependencies

Python 3*

Python libraries

bokeh *

bottleneck *

Ipython *

matplotlib *

numba *

numexpr *

NumPy *

openpyxl *

pandas *

python dateutil *

SciPy *

seaborn *

xlrd *

xlsxwriter *

xlwt *

Jupyter notebook*

* included with anaconda

seniority_list is designed to use the Jupyter Notebook (notebook) as its user interface. The notebook is required to run the interactive editor.

The name “Jupyter” is a loose acronym referring to the Julia, Python, and R programming languages. The notebook supports these and many other languages.

Information concerning the Jupyter notebook may be found on the jupyter website. There are numerous guides and tutorial videos online as well. Specific details pertaining to notebook usage with seniority_list are located in the “user guide” section.

spreadsheet program

A spreadsheet program compatible with .xlsx files is required to handle the input data and to read output from the program. Microsoft Excel® may be used with seniority_list, but is not required. LibreOffice Calc is an open-source spreadsheet program which works well with seniority_list. LibreOffice is free and may be downloaded from the LibreOffice website.

installing Python and Python libraries

Your computer must have the Python program and the associated Python libraries (helper programs which perform specialized tasks) listed above on your computer to be able to run seniority_list. Nearly all of these requirements are met with one download and installation of the Anaconda scientific platform. Navigate to this webpage and select the Python 3.6 (or above) and 64-bit version appropriate for your operating system. Install, using the default prompts. Detailed installation instructions are found on the anaconda website, if needed.

Note: The anaconda download is 350-600mb depending on your operating system and will require approximately 3gb of disk space when it is installed.

Note

As of September 2024, the seniority_list program is stable and usable with certain versions of supporting libraries only. Until the program is re-coded to be compatible with the latest versions, a stable working envirionment must be created containing the specific versions. See the section on managing environments found within the conda user guide.

Use the following code to create the seniority_list working environment, replacing “test” with your preferred name for the environment. This environment must be activated from the command line before opening the jupyter notebook and working with the program.

conda create -n test python=3.7.6 pandas=1.0.1 numpy=1.18.1 scipy=1.4.1 numba=0.48.0 matplotlib=3.1.3 seaborn=0.10.0 ipython=7.12.0 bokeh=1.4.0 jupyter=1.0.0 ipywidgets=7.5.1 notebook=6.0.3 numexpr=2.7.1 openpyxl=3.0.3 python-dateutil=2.8.1 scikit-learn=0.22.1 tornado=6.0.3 widgetsnbextension=3.5.1 xlrd=1.2.0 xlsxwriter=1.2.7 xlwt=1.3.0  jinja2=2.11.1 ipykernel=5.1.4 jupyter_client=5.3.4 jupyter_console=6.1.0 jupyter_core=4.6.1 jupyterlab=1.2.6 jupyterlab_server=1.0.6

At this point, the Python program files necessary to run seniority_list have been installed. The next step is to download and install the actual seniority_list program.

installing seniority_list

The seniority_list program and sample data files are downloadable from a GitHub repository. GitHub is a widely used hosting service for open source software projects. A repository is a container which holds code and other files relating to a project. The repository address for seniority_list is:

https://github.com/rubydatasystems/seniority_list.git

The easiest way to obtain the seniority_list program files from GitHub is to install the git program, which has a built-in method to grab files from GitHub repositories with one command line input.

git may be installed through the Anaconda platform. To install git, type or copy and paste the following command into a terminal:

conda install git

Once git is installed, open a terminal and type or copy and paste the following command:

git clone https://github.com/rubydatasystems/seniority_list.git

The git program will retrieve and install all of the program and sample data files from the GitHub repository (< 15mb).

Note

When running seniority_list with a Windows operating system, references to the terminal apply to the Anaconda Prompt, opened from the Start Menu. Linux and MacOS users may use the standard terminal prompt.