Anaconda and conda

Anaconda Distribution

Anaconda Distribution is a Python/R data science distribution that contains:

• Anaconda Navigator: a desktop application built on conda, with options to launch other development applications from your managed environments
• conda: a package and environment manager for your command line interface
• Over 300 automatically-installed packages that work well together out of the box

Installing Anaconda

Install Anaconda from the download page

Anaconda navigator

Cf. Overview page

• Home page: Install or launch popular graphical Python applications that work well with Navigator. We will mainly uses:
  • Jupyter Notebook
  • VS Code
    • Most useful VS code extensions
• Environments page: allows you to manage installed environments, packages, and channels.

Conda: Working with the environements

Conda is an open source package management and environment management tool for Python and other languages. Whenever you use Python, you will be working in a Python environment, which contains the specific Python version you are running on and various Python packages with specific package versions and specifications.

Cf. this starting guide from conda.

The environement used in the class can be found here. You should be able to import the environment using the following command:

conda env create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HSG-8276-Spring-2025/class-ressources/refs/heads/main/hsg-spring2025.yaml

Alternativelly, you can import this environment in the Anaconda Navigator (see Environment page).

In VSCode, you can access the conda environment by looking for your environement in the “Python: Select Interpreter” option in the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

You can also create a new environment from the command palette by typing “Python: Create Environment” and following the prompts.

References:

https://conda.io/en/latest/