add setup recommendations

Author: rasbt

.1st_setup/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# Optional Setup Instructions
+
+
+This document lists different approaches for setting up your machine and using the code in this repository. I recommend browsing through the different sections from top to bottom and then deciding which approach best suits your needs.
+
+<br>
+
+## Quickstart
+
+If you already have a Python installation on your machine, the quickest way to get started is to install the package requirements from the [../requirements.txt](../requirements.txt) file by executing the following pip installation command from the root directory of this code repository:
+
+```bash
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+<br>
+
+## Setting up Python
+
+If you don't have Python set up on your machine yet, I have written about my personal Python setup preferences in the following directories:
+
+- [../appendix-A/01_optional-python-setup-preferences](../appendix-A/01_optional-python-setup-preferences)
+- [../02_installing-python-libraries](../appendix-A/02_installing-python-libraries)
+
+
+
+
+<br>
+
+## Using Google Colab
+
+To use a Google Colab environment in the cloud, head over to [https://colab.research.google.com/](https://colab.research.google.com/) and open the respective chapter notebook from the GitHub menu or by dragging the notebook into the *Upload* field as shown in the figure below.
+
+<img src="./figures/1.webp" alt="1" width="700">
+
+
+Also make sure you upload the relevant files (dataset files and .py files the notebook is importing from) to the Colab environment as well, as shown below.
+
+<img src="./figures/2.webp" alt="2" width="700">
+
+
+You can optionally run the code on a GPU by changing the *Runtime* as illustrated in the figure below.
+
+<img src="./figures/3.webp" alt="3" width="700">
+
+
+<br>
+
+## Using DevContainers
+
+Alternatively, If you prefer a development setup that isolates a project's dependencies and configurations, using Docker is a highly effective solution. This approach eliminates the need to manually install software packages and libraries and ensures a consistent development environment. You can find more instructions for setting up Docker and using a DevContainer here in [../appendix-A/04_optional-docker-environment](../appendix-A/04_optional-docker-environment).
+
+<br>
+
+## Questions?
+
+If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out via the [Discussions](https://github.com/rasbt/LLMs-from-scratch/discussions) forum in this GitHub repository.