Installation

This section provides detailed instructions on how to set up OpenFLASH on your local machine.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following software installed on your system:

Python: Version 3.9 or higher. You can download the latest version from python.org.
pip: The Python package installer, which typically comes bundled with Python installations.
Anaconda: Popular Python distribution for scientific computing that simplifies environment management.

Recommended Setup: Virtual Environments

It is strongly recommended to use a virtual environment to manage the project’s dependencies. This isolates the OpenFLASH’s packages from your system-wide Python installation, preventing potential conflicts with other Python projects.

Choose one of the following methods to set up your virtual environment:

Create a virtual environment: Open your terminal or command prompt. Navigate to your desired location (e.g., where you plan to clone the openFlASH repository). Then, run the following command:
```
python3 -m venv openflash_project_env
```
This creates a new directory named openflash_project_env containing the virtual environment files.
Activate the virtual environment:
- macOS / Linux:
  source openflash_project_env/bin/activate
- Windows (Command Prompt):
  openflash_project_env\Scripts\activate.bat
- Windows (PowerShell):
  .\openflash_project_env\Scripts\Activate.ps1
Your terminal prompt should change to indicate that the virtual environment is active (e.g., (openflash_project_env) will appear at the beginning of your prompt).

Create a Conda environment: If you have Anaconda installed, you can create a dedicated environment for the project:
```
conda create -n openflash_project_env python=3.9  # You can specify your preferred Python version
```
Activate the Conda environment:
```
conda activate openflash_project_env
```
Your terminal prompt will change to show the active environment (e.g., (openflash_project_env)).

Installation via PyPI (pip)

OpenFLASH can be installed directly from PyPI using pip.

Activate your virtual environment: Ensure your chosen virtual environment (created with venv or conda) is active.
Install OpenFLASH: Run the following command in your activated environment:
```
pip install open-flash
```
This will download and install the latest stable version of OpenFLASH and its dependencies.

Installing via Conda

You can install OpenFLASH directly from the sea-lab channel on Anaconda.org by running:

conda install sea-lab::open-flash

This will install OpenFLASH and all necessary dependencies into your current conda environment.

Note

Ensure your conda environment is activated before running the command.

Verification (Optional)

To quickly verify that your installation was successful and core dependencies are available, you can open a Python interpreter within your activated environment and try importing some modules:

>>> import numpy
>>> import scipy
>>> import matplotlib
>>> print("All core dependencies imported successfully!")
>>> exit()

Troubleshooting

Command python3 not found or similar errors: Ensure Python is correctly installed and added to your system’s PATH. On some systems, python might refer to Python 2, and python3 to Python 3.
pip install -r requirements.txt fails:
- Check your internet connection.
- For specific compilation errors related to scientific packages (e.g., scipy), you may need to install system-level build tools (like build-essential on Linux or Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS) or refer to the official documentation of the problematic package.