Setup
Install Python
Python Beginners Guide/Download
Windows Setup
1) Run the Windows installer.
2) Add python to the Windows OS PATH environment variable.
There is an option to do this from the installer or you can edit the environment variable manually.
3) Check the installed version.
You can check that python is available from the command line by running the py command in Windows PowerShell.
Install Anaconda
Anaconda is a distribution of the Python and R programming languages for scientific computing (data science, machine learning applications, large-scale data processing, predictive analytics, etc.), that aims to simplify package management and deployment.
Create Virtual Environments Using Anaconda
The virtual environment will be used to isolate packages that a script imports.
List packages for current virtual environment
conda list
Create a new virtual environment based on info in a YAML file
The environment.yaml file lists information such as the environment name and specific packages.
environment.yaml
name: some-env-name
channels:
- defaults
dependencies:
- pandas=1.5.3
- pillow=9.3.0
- python=3.11.3
conda env create -f environment.yaml
List the available environments
The active environment will have an asterisk (*) and the default environment is named 'base'.
conda env list
Activate the environment
Note that some-env-name is the environment name specified in the environment.yaml file above.
conda activate some-env-name
Deactivate the active virtual environment
Deactivate virtual environments once you are done with them.
conda deactivate
Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
The following software can be used to write and/or execute python scripts.
Spyder (Also comes with Anaconda)
IDLE is Python’s Integrated Development and Learning Environment and is included as part of the python Windows installer.
VSCode Extensions
Here are a few python-related extensions:
Python (ms-python.python)
Jupyter extension pack (ms-toolsai.jupyter)
