Among those students who own their own computers, many prefer to set up their computers with the software required for doing CS111 work. Doing this setup is an idiosyncratic business, so it's hard to give explicit step-by-step guidance that works for everyone. The CS Department tries to provide some pointers on setting up your own computer, but doesn't guarantee that we can help you make everything work. If you can't get things working on your own machine, you can always use our labs (CMC 102, 304, 306).
That said, here are a few notes that might help.
First, here's what you will need:
How to install this software depends mostly on your computer's operating system. Here's a little guidance on the Unix and Python 3 installations. The text editor should be straight-forward to install, so I'll leave you on your own for that.
On Windows 10, you can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux to get a Unix command shell (bash). Once you have it set up, it usually works great, but it can be a bit of a tricky installation process.
I've searched around for helpful guides, and this installation guide at How-To Geek looks quite good.
Once you have the Windows Subsystem for Linux working and you have opened a bash prompt, try executing
IMPORTANT: If you use the Windows Subsystem for Linux, then I recommend the following work procedure.
Getting all this set up on Windows is just harder than it is on macOS or Linux, but on the other hand, you're likely to learn lots of miscellaneous stuff about your computer while you do the setup. Learning to configure your own software development environment is undeniably a headache, but it is also empowering. Be persistent and ask for help.