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I am a beginner and I want to learn computer programming. So, for now, I have started learning Python by myself with some knowledge about programming in C and Fortran.

Now, I have installed Python version 3.6.0 and I have struggled finding a suitable text for learning Python in this version. Even the online lecture series ask for versions 2.7 and 2.5 .

Now that I have got a book which, however, makes codes in version 2 and tries to make it as close as possible in version 3 (according to the author); the author recommends "downloading Anaconda for Windows" for installing Python.

So, my question is: What is this 'Anaconda'? I saw that it was some open data science platform. What does it mean? Is it some editor or something like Pycharm, IDLE or something?

Also, I downloaded my Python (the one that I am using right now) for Windows from Python.org and I didn't need to install any "open data science platform". So what is this happening?

Please explain in easy language. I don't have too much knowledge about these.

SchrodingersCat
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    About how Red Hat is related to Linux. It's a distribution, with installation and package management tools, a large selection of packages, and commercial support available (in this case, from Continuum). – Charles Duffy Feb 07 '17 at 17:33
  • It's an environment manager. It assists in creating different environments of Python each with their own packages and settings. – Dimitris Fasarakis Hilliard Feb 07 '17 at 17:34
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    ...to quote https://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/: "Anaconda is an easy-to-install free package manager, environment manager, Python distribution, and collection of over 720 open source packages offering free community support." – Charles Duffy Feb 07 '17 at 17:34
  • @CharlesDuffy Sorry to ask, but can you put that last statement of yours in a bit simple language, for a beginner? I don't know Red Hat and stuff. – SchrodingersCat Feb 07 '17 at 17:38
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    @Ev.Kounis Yeah, sure. Just help me understand the google results. That's what I want a bit help for. – SchrodingersCat Feb 07 '17 at 17:40
  • In addition to all the great comments about Anaconda listed in the answers section, since you are also struggling with tutorials which run on Python 2+, Anaconda will allow you to create an environment running the Python 2+ version independent of a more modern version such as 3.9 and let you switch between the environments to see how they differ. – itprorh66 Dec 11 '22 at 18:47

3 Answers3

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Anaconda is a commercial python and R distribution. It aims to provide everything you need (Python-wise) for data science "out of the box".

It includes:

  • The core Python language
  • 100+ Python "packages" (libraries)
  • Spyder (IDE/editor - like PyCharm) and Jupyter
  • conda, Anaconda's own package manager, used for updating Anaconda and packages

Your course may have recommended it as it comes with these extras but if you don't need them and are getting on fine with vanilla Python that's OK too.

Learn more: https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/

user5994461
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jambrothers
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  • So, does my installed python have all these "100+ python "packages" (libraries)"? – SchrodingersCat Feb 07 '17 at 17:44
  • @SchrodingersCat, ...if you installed it from python.org, as you say in the question, then no; you only have the [standard libraries](https://docs.python.org/3/library/) in that case. – Charles Duffy Feb 07 '17 at 17:44
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    @SchrodingersCat you would most likely need to install them yourself, most likely using [pip](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip) (which comes with most python dists and you should have it if you downloaded from python.org) – jambrothers Feb 07 '17 at 17:48
  • Also Anaconda is used majorly for the data science. which manipulates large datasets based on statistical methods. ie. Many statistical packages are already available in anaconda libraries(packages) – kten Aug 22 '17 at 07:40
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    How is Anaconda different from PIP? How does PIP relate to PyPl? How does Anaconda relate to PyPl? **Is** Anaconda PIP? – Ian Boyd Oct 29 '18 at 02:26
  • @jambrothers: Can you help me understand the setup: We have a local ( backend) server at localhost8888 ( or other) and a front end somehow, right? Is the localhost the backend? Just a bit confused. If answer is too long, a ref. would be great. – MSIS Nov 10 '20 at 22:14
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    @MSIS I think you probably want to ask a fresh question for this issue, as I don't think it relates specifically to this answer? – jambrothers Nov 12 '20 at 11:57
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Anaconda is a Python distribution that makes it easy to install Python plus a number of its most often used 3rd party libraries in a flexible way on a Windows or Linux machine.

My experiences with it are very positive, both on Windows and Linux. It is quite complete and avoids problems in building libraries that you need from source code, that frequently plague one by one installations of those libraries by tools like pip.

By the way: It's very wise to start with 3.5 or 3.6 since 2.7 is approaching the end of its lifecycle, though many applications still depend on it.

As for tutorials: Pythons own docs are quite suitable for learning the language.

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/

Matthias Braun
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Jacques de Hooge
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Anaconda is a Python-based data processing and scientific computing platform. It has built in many very useful third-party libraries. Installing Anaconda is equivalent to automatically installing Python and some commonly used libraries such as Numpy, Pandas, Scrip, and Matplotlib, so it makes the installation so much easier than regular Python installation. If you don't install Anaconda, but instead only install Python from python.org, you also need to use pip to install various libraries one by one. It is painful and you need to consider compatibility, thus it is highly recommended to directly install Anaconda.

Victoria Zhou
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