This page provides a short guide for installing python on your computer using the anaconda package management system. anaconda is a distribution for the python programming language, that not only installs python on your system, but also provides functionalities for downloading, installing and maintaining python packages.
anaconda can be obtained from the project's website:
https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/.
Downloads exist for Windows, macOS as well as Linux – please choose the
appropriate installer for your operating system. Graphical installers are
provided for Windows and macOS, that is, you just open the downloaded .exe or
.pkg file and follow the on-screen instructions for installation. For Linux,
there is a command-line-based installer, which is to be downloaded and then
executed in the shell.
We strongly recommend installing anaconda for your personal user account only.
That is, on macOS and Linux, the installation will be done in
home/<user>/anaconda3. This way, the installation will not affect any
system-wide settings, and is generally a little more robust. If you need more
help with downloading and installing anaconda on your system, the documentation
pages provide installation
instructions, too. Here are the
direct links for Windows, macOS and Linux:
For graphical installers (on Windows and macOS) you can verify the installation by opening the newly installed application "Anaconda Navigator". If this opens the Anaconda Navigator window, you're done with the installation!
In case you used a command-line-based installer (Linux, but also macOS), you
will also be prompted: "Do you wish the installer to initialize Anaconda3 by
running conda init?" We recommend entering "yes" to set up anaconda for
command-line use correctly. Close and reopen your shell, then check whether the
conda command exists and returns something, e.g. by typing conda list. This
should return a (more or less) long list of installed python packages. In the
next step, type python, which opens the python interpreter in the shell. If
anaconda is installed and working, the version information it displays when it
starts up will include “Anaconda”. To exit the Python shell, enter the command
quit(). If the conda command cannot be found, check out steps (7) ff. in the
Linux installation instructions (for both macOS and Linux).