- So let's get started.
- [Paul] That was good, but the screen
turned off in the middle of it.
- [Grunts comically]
- [Paul] All right, let's do the intro.
[Upbeat Music]
- [Abe] Hello again.
This is Abe and welcome back
to Coding with Qiskit.
In this episode, we're going to install Qiskit
on our computer and get started writing code.
Now we're going to make sure
that you're ready to go whether you're using a Mac,
a Windows machine, or a Linux machine.
So we're going to achieve two things.
The first thing that we're going to do
is first set up Qiskit on our computer
and then what we're going to do is
get an access token from the IBM Quantum Experience.
So that access token allows us to write code
that we can then run, not just locally on our computers
but also on real quantum computers at IBM.
So in order to install Qiskit,
the first thing I'm going to do
is make sure that I have all
the requirements ready.
And to do this, I'm going to install
a distribution of Python called Anaconda Python.
Now I'm going to be installing things
on a Mac so every time I see a step
that requires a little bit of attention,
if you're on Windows or on Linux machines,
I'll point those out.
So we start off by opening a new browser window
and typing in: Anaconda Python.
This will take us to a distribution page
for Anaconda Python which allows me to now
install it on my computer.
As I said, I'm using a macOS right now
but if you're on a Windows machine
or a Linux machine, you'd have to change
depending on which set-up you'd like to use.
Now one thing I'd like to point out here,
is that if you're on a Windows machine,
what you are downloading is an executable
which will then install Anaconda on your computer.
If you're on a Linux machine,
you're downloading an .sh file.
So let's do the macOS installation.
And a key thing to remember here is
we're going to be using Python 3.7.
There is another distribution for 2.7
but we're not going to be using that.
So let's go to the Python 3.7 version
and click Download.
As you might imagine,
the download will take a few moments
so this is a good point to pause the video
and come back to it once your download is complete.
Once the download is complete,
I'm going to go to my Downloads folder
and click the Anaconda package.
I'm going to click Continue on this step
and then follow the installation instructions.
So usually the default settings are good enough
so I'm just going to do this very quickly.
And as this installation is proceeding,
I would like to remind you again,
if you're on a Windows machine,
you would go to your Downloads folder
and run the executable for the Anaconda distribution
and if you're on a Linux machine,
you're going to open your terminal,
switch to that folder, your Downloads folder,
and then type: bash, along with the name
of the file that you downloaded.
As of this video, it was an .sh file.
So once the installation completes,
I'm going to close
and start my terminal.
And then install Qiskit by typing in: pip install qiskit.
So this procedure is the same on all devices.
On Windows machine, you would open the Anaconda Prompt.
So go to your Start Menu and type: Anaconda Prompt.
Open that terminal window and type: pip install qiskit
and on a Linux machine, you'd do exactly
what we did here which is open your terminal
and type: pip install qiskit
so similar instruction on all three operation systems.
All right, and once that's done,
we're ready to start using Qiskit.
So what I'm going to do is
use the Jupyter Notebook interface
to write Qiskit code
so while we're in this terminal window,
what I'm going to do is type: jupyter notebook.
Notice how the spelling of Jupyter
has a Y in it.
Once I do that, Jupyter opens in a new browser window
and you get something that looks like this.
So the first thing to do,
is create a new Jupyter notebook
based on Python 3.
And this is what the page looks like.
So the first thing I'm going to do
is make sure that my Qiskit installation
is complete.
So what I'm going to do
is write some Python code to import Qiskit here.
And that's going to say: import qiskit
and hit Shift plus Enter.
If you have Qiskit installed,
this line should execute and you should see that line
go from In to In 1.
And to make sure that the version of Qiskit
is the latest version,
I'm going to type: qiskit.__qiskit_version__
When you do that, you should see an output
that tells you the version of Qiskit
that you have installed.
As of this video, the version of Qiskit
that's the latest is 0.11.1
and the versions that you see under that
are the components of Qiskit.
The four elements that we'll be talking about
throughout this video series.
Remember that Qiskit is open source software
so what you can do is go to Qiskit.org,
find the link to our GitHub page,
go to the Qiskit repository
and scroll down in the ReadMe
and see what release version there is.
So as you see, this is release 0.11.1
which is exactly what we're seeing
in our Jupyter notebook.
So we're up to date and we're ready to start
writing code.
While we write our code,
what we will usually do is first,
debug our code on a simulator
and once we're ready to run our code
we'll send it to a quantum device.
In order to use the quantum devices at IBM,
we need to get an API token
which gives us permission to use the devices.
So to get that API token,
we need to create an account
on the IBM Quantum Experience website.
That website is quantum-computing.ibm.com.
Once you get to the website,
you need to create a new account,
if you don't have an account.
Once you log into the IBM Quantum Experience website,
you should be seeing a page that looks similar
to this.
So this website allows you to first,
create a quantum circuit graphically
by using, what we call a circuit composer
or to use online Qiskit notebooks
by going to the left side and clicking
Qiskit Notebooks
or by going to the homepage
and clicking Create a notebook.
So you can think of this
as a way of running Jupyter notebooks
online with Qiskit installed
just like we did on our local computer.
In order to get your API token,
remember this is your access code
to IBM's quantum devices.
You would go to your profile page
by clicking this top right bar
and clicking My Account.
And this is your API token.
So it's hidden from view, you'd click Copy Token.
On the Jupyter notebook, we're going to type:
from qiskit import IBMQ
and hit Shift, Enter to execute that line
and then we're going to type: IBMQ.save_account
and then within single quotes
I'm going to type in my API token
that I pasted from that website.
Once you do this,
your API token is saved onto your computer
and now you're ready to access IBM's quantum devices.
To see that you have access to these devices,
what you can do is then type: IBMQ.load account.
Once this line executes,
you should see an output that tells you
the account that you have access to
and you should be able to proceed
with running code, not just on your computer,
but then sending the quantum circuits
that you build in your computer
to IBM's quantum devices and getting results
back from them.
So now that you've installed Qiskit,
you're ready to start writing code
and building your quantum circuits
and executing them, both on simulators
and on quantum hardware.
This is the exciting part,
where you get to build,
not just things to test on your computer,
but to deploy in a lab at IBM and get results back
and these could be games.
These could be applications for industry
or even things you personally are interested in.
We'll start off in the next episode
by showing you how to run a simple quantum circuit,
both on a simulator on your computer
and on the hardware at IBM.
If at any point, you had trouble installing Qiskit
please feel free to reach out to us
on our Qiskit Slack channel
where you can get support.
Not just from IBM but also from people
in the community.
We'll post a link to the Slack channel
down in the description.
[Upbeat Hip Hop]