Getting started with conda

episode: https://carpentries-incubator.github.io/introduction-to-conda-for-data-scientists/01-getting-started-with-conda/index.html

Packages

import something

Note:

• Python can do a lot

• not alone

• external packages

• import package

• Module: a collection of functions and variables, as in a script

• Package: a collection of modules with an init.py file (can be empty), as in a directory with scripts

• Library: a collection of packages with realted functionality

Library/Package are often used interchangeably.
Module on HPC different

Dependencies

"[Something] relying on [something else] to work.""

From pandas documentation:

From scikit-learn documentation

"I found this package that would solve all my problems, but it needs [some package] 1.3 while all other packages I need rely on [same package] 2.5"

"I found this package that would solve all my problems, but it needs [Python] 2.7 while all other packages I need rely on [Python] 3.6"

Environments

Environment management system

• Multiple versions
• Portability
• Rights

Package management system

• Dependencies
• Updates

Why use package and environment management systems?

• Same package, different version
• Dependency hell (updates)
• Reproducibility

Discussion

What are some of the potential benefits from installing software separately for each project? What are some of the potential costs?

Conda

Why conda?

• Avoid building from source
• takes care of dependencies
• OS independent
• combined package and environment management system

Keypoints

• Conda:
  • platform agnostic
  • open source
  • package and environment management system
  • not only for Python