During the weekend I got a member of the team getting in touch because he was unable to get a Python package working for him . He had just installed Python in his machine, but things were not quite right… For example pip was not working and he had a bit of a bother setting some environment variables… I recommended to him having a look at installing Python via the Anaconda distribution. Today he was up and running with his app.
Given that outcome, I thought it was a great coincidence that the latest episode of Talk Python To Me that started playing on my way back home happened to be about Conda and Conda-Forge. I highly recommend listening to it. Take a loook:
Talk Python To Me – Python conversations for passionate developers – #94 Guarenteed packages via Conda and Conda-Forge
Have you ever had trouble installing a package you wanted to use in your Python app? Likely it contained some odd dependency, required a compilation step, maybe even using an uncommon compiler like Fortran. Did you try it on Windows? How many times have you seen “Cannot find vcvarsall.bat” before you had to take a walk?
If this sounds familiar, you might want to check conda the package manager, Anaconda, the distribution, conda forge, and conda build. They dramatically lower the bar for installing packages on all the platforms.
This week you’ll meet Phil Elson, Kale Franz, and Michael Sarahan who all work on various parts of this ecosystem.
Links from the show:
conda: conda.pydata.org
conda-build: conda.pydata.org/docs/commands/build/conda-build.html
Anaconda distribution: continuum.io/anaconda-overview
conda-forge: conda-forge.github.io
Phil Elson on Twitter: @pypelson
Kale Franz: @kalefranz
Michael Sarahan: github.com/msarahan