Installing Anaconda

Anaconda is a software package that will be used throughout the PHRM 8010 course. The software functions as a simple way to install various software scientific software packages with particular emphasis on the Python and R programming languages. The advantage of this approach is that you have all your scientific software packages in a central location. Most software used in this course will be installed using Anaconda.

1. Please download install Anaconda on a user account on your computer. This will install in your user account. Preferably, do not install the software in a root or administrator account.
2. Open Anaconda
   1. It should look like: Click to enlarge
   2. In the right section of the software is Home, Environments, Learning, and Community. Click the various sections.
      • Home: When you are on the Home screen, you will see an array of squares that show you the software than can theoretically be installed or is installed. I am talking about this (Click to enlarge). At the bottom of the each square is an install or launch button. Depending on how a particular environment is set up, you can launch that software. On the top of the screen is a pulldown, that shows the environment that you are in. It is this . What is an environment? You can think of an environment as a separate location for the installation of your software. The advantage of installing software in an environment is that it reduces the risk To the right of it is the . If you click on this button, it will list the "channels" that are available to you. You can think of it like television content, except it reflects a software channel.
      • Environments: You can think of environments as being a computer within a computer. The advantage of this approach is that you do not corrupt your computer and different approaches will not corrupt each other. We will be using environments a lot to protect your computer. In the middle, are a list of environments that are available for you. Depending on how many environments that you have, it might look like this: (Click to enlarge). At the bottom will be the following buttons: . The only ones that you might use are the or .
      • Learning: This section provides documentation and resources for learning about software that is installed within anaconda. I am very impressed by the quality of the tutorials that they have in this section.
      • Community: This section provides ways to ask questions to the software community. However, I would be happy to answer questions for you. I typically do a Google search to get answers to my questions.