Installing Julia & Pluto

I - Installing Julia

Note

When you see below \(\rightarrow\) , it means that you should type “add Pluto” followed by pressing “Enter” on our keyboard. And when you see + it means that you need to press the keyboard’s keys and simultaneously.

The installation instructions for Julia vary depending on the Operating System (OS) of your computer. Please choose your OS tab in the following box to see the appropriate instructions.

  1. To make sure that you download the correct executable for the Windows OS, you can download it from Windows installer Julia v1.10.10
  2. Check your folder and double-click the file you have just downloaded to run it
  3. Allow the installation to be done in the default directory
  4. Click on:
    If, for whatever reason, you missed the previous step and did not tick the empty box, please restart the installation process.
  5. Click on:

🎉 Well done! By now, Julia should be correctly installed on your computer.
To run it, search for and click on the Julia icon .

  1. Be careful to choose the correct Apple executable
    according to the processor (Intel/Rosetta or Apple Silicon) you have on your Mac: this means that you have to choose (2) or (3) below.
  2. If your Mac has an Intel or Rosetta processor, you can download the correct executable from macOS x86 (Intel or Rosetta) Julia v1.110.10
  3. If your Mac has an Apple Silicon processor, you can download the correct executable from macOS (Apple Silicon) Julia v1.10.10
  4. Check your folder and drag the executable that you downloaded to the folder.

🎉 Well done! By now, Julia should be correctly installed on your computer.
To run it, search for and click on the Julia icon that you will see in the folder Applications.

  1. Download the executable: 64-bit (.glibc) (for distributions like Ubuntu or Mint) from Generic Linux on x86 Julia v1.10.10
  2. Extract the compressed folder and save it to your directory.
  3. Inside the folder there should be another folder named . Get the path to that folder by clicking with the right button of your mouse and choosing
  4. Return to your directory and search for a file called `
    The file .profile is a hidden file. If you don’t see it, turn the hidden files visible.
  5. At the end of the file add the following path: PATH="/home/<user>/<julia-1.10.10>/bin:$PATH"
    Save the changes you have just made to this file.
    Notice that the part /home/<user>/<julia-1.10.10>/bin should be exactly what you copied from the properties of the folder some steps before.
  6. Please restart your computer right now.

🎉 Well done! By now, Julia should be correctly installed on your computer.
To run it, open a terminal and run: \(\rightarrow\)
To open a Terminal search for the icon .

II - Installing Pluto

Next we will install Pluto. Remember Pluto is a Julia Package. This means that we install it and run it from inside Julia.

  1. Run Julia the way you were told at the end of the installation instructions above (it varies according to te operating system you have). You should bee seeing a window like this:

    By now, you should be comfortable with the fact that Julia has a weird old-school interface. That’s why we use a fancy IDE like Pluto!

  2. With Julia running, type the character ], usually by using the keyboard combination + or + + in Windows and Linux, and + on a Mac. The previous window should become like this:

  3. Then type: \(\rightarrow\)

  4. When the Pluto installation is completed, go back to mode. To do so, you just need to:

    • Press on Windows
    • Press on a Mac

🎉 Well done! By now, Pluto should be correctly installed on your computer. To start Pluto, in the Julia window run:
\(\rightarrow\)

Notice the capital letter P in Pluto, the space between import and Pluto, the dot between Pluto and run(), and the semicolon separating both expressions. All these details have to be followed, otherwise Julia will throw out an error!

Pluto will run in a window of your default Browser (we recommend Google Chrome or Firefox).

III - Updating Pluto

WarningPlease do not update Pluto

The instructions below should not be used in our course unless the teaching team explicitly tells you to do so. In Julia 1.10.10, the notebooks will load faster if we do not update our installation.

The instructions below are here for general use. If later you want to continue using Julia and the gap between now and then is quite large, it’s better to upgrade your Pluto installation to a more recent version. But, as said, do not do that throughout the upcoming semester.

For general use.

The team that created Pluto updates this package regularly. So, it is advisable to update Pluto occasionally to get the newest version on your computer. As Pluto is a Julia package, this means that we will have to update it from inside Julia.

  1. Run Julia the way you were told at the end of the installation instructions above (it varies according to the operating system you have). You should bee seeing a window like this (see the mode):

  2. With Julia running, type the character ] . In Windows (and Linux) this character is achieved using the keyboard combination + or + + ; in Mac by using + . The previous window should become like this ( mode):

  3. Then type: +

  4. When the Pluto update is completed, to go back to julia> mode:

    • Press on Windows
    • Press on a Mac

🎉 Well done! By now, you have the latest version of Pluto installed on your PC. To start using Pluto see the following section.