Changes to quick-start guide

Documentation/guides/quick_start.md

@@ -2,76 +2,63 @@
 
 ## Installing HARK
 
-HARK is an open source project that is compatible with Python 3.
-
-### Installing HARK with pip
+HARK is an open source project that is compatible with Python 3. Currently, we recommend using version 3.10 or lower.
 
 The simplest way to install HARK is to use [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installation/).
 
-To install HARK with pip, at a command line type `pip install econ-ark`.
-
-(If you want to install a release that is not the default stable release, for instance if you want to install a development release, you'll need to use a "pinned" release number: `pip install econ-ark==0.10.1.dev1`, substituting "0.10.1.dev1" for your desired release number.)
+Before installing HARK, we recommend creating a new virtual environment, which isolates the installation of `econ-ark` from the installations of any other Python tools and packages, thus avoiding conflicts.
 
-If you are installing via pip, we recommend using a virtual environment such as [virtualenv](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/). Creation of a virtual environment isolates the installation of `econ-ark` from the installations of any other python tools and packages.
-
-To install `virtualenv`, then to create an environment named `econ-ark`, and finally to activate that environment:
+To create a new virtual environment, enter this in your command line:
 
 ```
 cd [directory where you want to store the econ-ark virtual environment]
-pip install virtualenv
-virtualenv econ-ark
-source econ-ark/bin/activate
+python -m venv econ-ark
 ```
 
----
-
-### Using HARK with Anaconda
-
-If you intend ever to use the toolkit for anything other than running the precooked material we have provided, you should probably install [Anaconda](https://anaconda.com/), which will install python along with many packages that are frequently used in scientific computing.
-
-1. Download Anaconda for your operating system and follow the installation instructions [at Anaconda.com](https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/#download-section).
-
-1. Anaconda includes its own virtual environment system called `conda` which stores environments in a preset location (so you don't have to choose). So in order to create and activate an econ-ark virtual environment:
+On Windows, type:
 
 ```
-conda create -n econ-ark anaconda
-conda activate econ-ark
-conda install -c conda-forge econ-ark
+econ-ark\Scripts\activate
 ```
 
-1. Open Spyder, an interactive development environment (IDE) for Python (specifically, iPython). You may be able to do this through Anaconda's graphical interface, or you can do so from the command line/prompt. To do so, simply open a command line/prompt and type `spyder`.
+On Mac or Linux:
 
-1. To verify that spyder has access to HARK try typing `pip install econ-ark` into the iPython shell within Spyder. If you have successfully installed HARK as above, you should see a lot of messages saying 'Requirement satisfied'.
+```
+source econ-ark/bin/activate
+```
 
-   - If that doesn't work, you will need to manually add HARK to your Spyder environment. To do this, you'll need to get the code from Github and import it into Spyder. To get the code from Github, you can either clone it or download a zipped file.
+Then use `pip install econ-ark` to install HARK in this environment.
 
-   - If you have `git` installed on the command line, type `git clone [email protected]:econ-ark/HARK.git` in your chosen directory ([more details here](https://git-scm.com/doc)).
+Alternatively, if you are using either the [Anaconda](https://anaconda.com/) distribution or [Miniconda](https://docs.conda.io/projects/miniconda/en/latest/), you can create a virtual environment using `conda`, which eliminates the need to manage the environment's location:
 
-     - If you do not have `git` available on your computer, you can download the [GitHub Desktop app](https://desktop.github.com/) and use it to make a local clone
+```
+conda create -n econ-ark python=3.10
+conda activate econ-ark
+pip install econ-ark
+```
 
-   - If you don't want to clone HARK, but just to download it, go to [the HARK repository on GitHub](https://github.com/econ-ark/HARK). In the upper righthand corner is a button that says "clone or download". Click the "Download Zip" option and then unzip the contents into your chosen directory.
+(If you want to install a release that is not the default stable release, for instance if you want to install a development release, you'll need to use a "pinned" release number: `pip install econ-ark==0.10.1.dev1`, substituting "0.10.1.dev1" for your desired release number.)
 
-   Once you've got a copy of HARK in a directory, return to Spyder and navigate to that directory where you put HARK. This can be done within Spyder by doing `import os` and then using `os.chdir()` to change directories. `chdir` works just like cd at a command prompt on most operating systems, except that it takes a string as input: `os.chdir('Music')` moves to the Music subdirectory of the current working directory.
+### Demonstrations on using HARK
 
-6) Most of the modules in HARK are just collections of tools. There are a few demonstration
-   applications that use the tools that you automatically get when you install HARK -- they are listed in the sidebar at the left. A much larger set of uses of HARK can be found at two repositories:
-   _ [DemARK](https://github.com/econ-ark/DemARK): Demonstrations of the use of HARK
-   _ [REMARK](https://github.com/econ-ark/REMARK): Replications of existing papers made using HARK
+Most of the modules in HARK are just collections of tools. There are a few demonstration
+   applications that use the tools that you automatically get when you install HARK -- they are available in [Overview & Examples](https://docs.econ-ark.org/overview/index.html). A much larger set of uses of HARK can be found at two repositories:
+   - [DemARK](https://github.com/econ-ark/DemARK): Demonstrations of the use of HARK
+   - [REMARK](https://github.com/econ-ark/REMARK): Replications of existing papers made using HARK
 
 You will want to obtain your own local copy of these repos using:
 
 ```
 git clone https://github.com/econ-ark/DemARK.git
+git clone https://github.com/econ-ark/REMARK.git
 ```
 
-and similarly for the REMARK repo. Once you have downloaded them, you will find that each repo contains a `notebooks` directory that contains a number of [jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter.org/). If you have the jupyter notebook tool installed (it is installed as part of Anaconda), you should be able to launch the
-jupyter notebook app from the command line with the command:
+ Once you have downloaded them, you will find that each repo contains a `notebooks` directory that contains a number of [jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter.org/). You can either view them in your integrated development environment (IDE) -- such as [VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) or [PyCharm](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/) -- or if you have `jupyter` installed, launch the Jupyter notebook tool using the command line:
 
-```
-jupyter notebook
-```
-
-and from there you can open the notebooks and execute them.
+ ```
+ cd [directory containing the repository]
+ jupyter notebook
+ ```
 
 ## Learning HARK
 
@@ -103,44 +90,25 @@ The most broadly applicable advice is to go to [Econ-ARK](https://econ-ark.org)
 
 ## Making changes to HARK
 
-If you want to make changes or contributions to HARK, you'll need to have access to the source files. Installing HARK via `pip install econ-ark` (at the command line, or inside Spyder) makes it hard to access those files (and it's a bad idea to mess with the original code anyway because you'll likely forget what changes you made). If you are adept at GitHub, you can [fork](https://help.github.com/en/articles/fork-a-repo) the repo. If you are less experienced, you should download a personal copy of HARK again using `git clone` (see above) or the GitHub Desktop app.
-
-### Clone HARK
-
-Navigate to wherever you want to put the repository and type `git clone [email protected]:econ-ark/HARK.git` ([more details here](https://git-scm.com/doc)). If you get a permission denied error, you may need to setup SSH for GitHub, or you can clone using HTTPS: `git clone https://github.com/econ-ark/HARK.git`.
+_For detailed instructions, refer to our [contributing guide](https://docs.econ-ark.org/guides/contributing.html)._
 
-### (Optionally) Create a virtual environment
+If you want to make changes or contributions to HARK, you'll need to have access to the source files. Installing HARK via `pip` makes it hard to access these files. If you are adept at GitHub, you can [fork](https://help.github.com/en/articles/fork-a-repo) the repository. If you are less experienced, you should download a personal copy of HARK again using `git clone https://github.com/econ-ark/HARK.git` or the GitHub Desktop app.
 
-If you are familiar with [virtual environments](https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/), you can optionally create and activate a virtual environment which will isolate the econ-ark specific tools from the rest of your computer.
+As described above, it is advisable to use a virtual environment even when making changes to HARK. Follow the instructions provided previously to create and activate a virtual environment.
 
-For Mac or Linux:
-
-- Install virtualenv if you need to and then type:
-
-```
-virtualenv econ-ark
-source econ-ark/bin/activate
-```
+### Install requirements
 
-- For Windows:
+Once you have created a local copy of the repository, install requirements as follows:
 
 ```
-virtualenv econ-ark
-econ-ark\\Scripts\\activate.bat
+cd [to where the repository was stored]/HARK/requirements
+pip install -r base.txt
+pip install -r dev.txt
+pip install -r doc.txt
 ```
 
-Once the virtualenv is activated, you may see `(econ-ark)` in your command prompt (depending on how your machine is configured)
-
-### Install requirements
-
-Make sure to change to HARK directory, and install HARK's requirements into the virtual environment with `pip install -r requirements.txt`.
-
-### Test your installation
-
-To check that everything has been set up correctly, run HARK's tests with `python -m unittest`.
+To check that everything has been set up correctly, you can run HARK's tests using `python -m unittest`.
 
 ## Next steps
 
-To learn more about how to use HARK, check the next sections in this documentation, in particular the jupyter notebooks.
-
-For help making changes to HARK, check out our [contributing guide](contributing.md).
+To learn more about how to use HARK, check the next sections in this documentation, in particular the example notebooks.