Pre-event Materials

Getting Started with Conda

Overview

Teaching: 15 min
Exercises: 0 min
Questions

  • What is Conda?

  • How do I install Conda?

Objectives

  • Get conda installed!

What is Conda?

Conda is an open source package and environment management system for any programming languages, but very popular among python community, for installing multiple versions of software packages, their dependencies and switching easily between them. It works on Linux, OS X and Windows.

Installing Miniconda

Windows

Click here to download the proper installer for your Windows platform (64 bits). We recommend to download the Python 3 version of Miniconda. You can still create Python 2 environments using the Python 3 version of Miniconda.

When installing, you will be asked if you wish to make the Anaconda Python your default Python for Windows, just follow the default options.

Linux and maxOS

You may follow the manual download to the instructions on Windows (see above). Alternatively, you can execute these commands on a terminal shell (in this case, the bash shell):

url=bit.ly/miniconda3
wget $url -O miniconda.sh
bash miniconda.sh -b -p $HOME/miniconda
export PATH="$HOME/miniconda/bin:$PATH"
conda update conda --yes

Installing Python

We will be using Python 3.7 during the week. If you are already familiar with Python 2.7, you can take a look at the syntax differences here, but the main point to remember is to put the print statements in parentheses:

print('Hello World!')

$ conda create -n OHW python=3.7

To use Python 3.7:

$ source activate OHW

To check if you have the correct version:

$ python --version

Key Points