Software installation

Software installation#

Installing Conda#

You will need the Conda package manager to setup your environment required for the course. You can install Anaconda or Miniconda. The user guide and short reference on Conda can be found here.

Miniconda is already installed in the VMA computer rooms.

Installing the course environment#

To setup the course environment first create a YAML file (e.g. geo4436.yaml in your course directory) with the following content:

name: geo4436
channels:
  - conda-forge
  - nodefaults
dependencies:
  - python=3.11
  - pip
  - scipy
  - pandas
  - matplotlib-base
  - spyder

Then launch Anaconda prompt and change the prompt directory into course directory (where you stored the yaml file) using cd , e.g.:

cd C:\Users\YourName\course_GEO-4436

Note

The Anaconda prompt should be installed together with Anaconda. You can look for it in your search bar.

Then create the environment with:

conda env create -f geo4436.yaml

This will install all required software for the course, and may take a while.

Important

If you are working on a MacBook, the Anaconda prompt is not installed. However, the above commands should work as well if you run them in the Terminal, which you can find through the search bar. Note that the syntax for directories/paths is different on Mac than on Windows.

Activating the course environment#

When starting the computer practicals you first need to activate your environment in the Anaconda prompt or Apple Terminal:

conda activate geo4436

You then can start e.g. Spyder or Python from the command prompt.

spyder
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