Setting up Python for GPT Training

I've been doing some refresh "homework" on engineering work I haven't done in 20 years. One of the tools I've been working with is an AI agent to fast track my knowledge collection. Basically I go through an example activity, get a chat AI agent to build a reading list, convert that a markdown text file, and save the markdown file in Drafts. In the evening I covert the markdown to a PDF that I can read on the couch on my iPad.

One of the rabbit holes I went down recently is getting a "daily briefing" of everything I needed for tomorrow in a single information nugget - meetings, task that are due, etc. I want to use my Mac mini as an automation hub to run a series of scripts to collect different sources of information and put them into a single markdown file. The step I was working on was the conversion of markdown to HTML or rich text. The goal is to use a Python script that will take a markdown file, convert the markdown text to rich text format, and then copy it to the clipboard. I would append various snippets from different sources into a holding document to be emailed or texted to myself.

I got a working version of the Python script, but got the following errors when I ran the script:

mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~ % ~/Dropbox/bin/Python/OF_markdown.py Missing dependency: markdown. Install with: python3 -m pip install markdown mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~ %

Huh... maybe I forgot to install the markdown package for Python. I tried various package installers to install the missing Markdown package. Each time I got a variation of this:

mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~ % brew install markdown
Warning: markdown 1.0.1 is already installed and up-to-date.
To reinstall 1.0.1, run:
brew reinstall markdown
mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~ %

mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~/Python % python3 -m pip install markdown
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try brew install

xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to install.

If you wish to install a Python library that isn't in Homebrew, use a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv path/to/venv
source path/to/venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install xyz

These errors cleared some fog in my head from my previous Mac. I remembered I _may_ have not done the best job setting up my Mac to work on Python. My old Python environment could have been the inspiration for this xkcd comic:

With the new macOS security "features" and the deeper dive I was taking with Python, it was about time I did things the right way. #### Setting up a Python Virtual Environment After reading through [one of the tutorials I found](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-python-3-and-set-up-a-local-programming-environment-on-macos), I got a working environment setup pretty quickly. I'd suggest reading through the link above for additional details, but this is the short version for me to look up at a later date. 1. Open Terminal app. 2. Create a new folder that will be used as the base for the Python environment you'll working in. In my case I made a new folder at the same level as Desktop, Music and Documents called Python. 3. Navigate to the folder and run python3 -m venv envname. The term envname will the name you give your working Python environment. In case I just used Python_Dev. 4. Congrats... your virtual Python environment is ready for you. #### Activating a Python virtual environment 1. Open Terminal app and navigate to the Python development folder at ~/Python 2. Activate the environment by entering source envname/bin/activate. The \ will be the name/title of the virtual environment you previously created.

Once you activate the virtual environment, your terminal prompt should change from something like this:

mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~/Python %

To a prompt like this that includes your virtual environment in parentheses:

(Python_Dev) mygeekdaddy@MBPM5:~/Python %

3. Now you can use a package manager to install Python packages like markdown or pandocs:

pip install \
pip install markdown
brew install pandoc. To exit the virtual environment, just type deactivate and you will be back to a normal prompt. Using this environment allows me to run Python scripts and install packages that don't conflict with macOS package manager.

Setting up Python for GPT Training

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