So, you've just started learning to code and
you've chosen Python as your programming language.
That's a great choice.
But how do you get started coding in Python?
Well, you need to download and install the Python programming language on
your machine so that you can code with it.
And that's exactly what we'll do using the Anaconda distribution.
The install steps followed in this video are to set up Python on your
Mac machine.
So, follow these steps if you have a Mac machine.
Type in install anaconda on mac and
this will take you to the search results on your favorite search engine.
Now, the first thing that might have struck you here is that there are a lot
of snake references.
Python is a snake as is Anaconda.
So, you know that Python is a programming language.
What exactly is Anaconda?
Anaconda is the open-source distribution of the Python as well as
R programming languages.
Open source, it's absolutely free for any developer to download and use.
Within the Anaconda distribution, not only do you get Python and R but bunch
of other tools that makes it very easy for a new programmer to get started.
Now you might be aware that the Python programming language has a number of
libraries and packages to perform a bunch of common tasks. So,
you don't have to write the code for everything yourself.
There are packages which allow you to perform data science, data wrangling,
machine learning operations, everything.
There are Python libraries that make it easy to build web apps to scrape
websites, whatever you need to do.
Within the Anaconda distribution, you have something called
the Conda Package Manager, which allows you to download and
install Python packages and libraries that you might use.
Now, let's move on and let's get Anaconda set up on our local machine.
Click on this link which says Installing on macOS.
Anaconda 2.0 is the version that we are going to use.
This will take you to the install page for Anaconda and on the left
navigation menu, you can see that the Anaconda distribution is available for
a number of different operating systems, Linux, Windows, as well as the Mac.
Click on the link here that says macOS installer and this will take you to
a web page where you can download the Anaconda distribution of Python.
This will take you to a page where the Mac OS versions
for Python are available.
And the first thing that you're faced with is a choice.
There are two versions of Python here, a Python 2.7 version and
a Python 3.7 version.
So which one do you choose?
Python 2.7 is the older version and often referred to as Python 2.
Python has been around a long time and
there are many projects in the real world built using Python 2.7.
And that version is actively supported.
However, if you're starting afresh, it's best to use Python 3.
The programming language itself and the concepts involved are not very
different whether you choose Python 2 or 3.
But there are subtle differences in certain functions,
especially the print statement that can trip up newbie programmers, so
it's best to stick with Python 3.
That's the Python version of the future.
All of the demos in this course will be in Python 3.
Go ahead and select the Python 3.7 version.
Click on this Download button here
and the .pkg file will be downloaded onto your local machine.
Once the download is complete, you can click on this drop-down and
open up this installer to get Python installed on your Mac machine.
Click on Continue here. We do want to run
Anaconda which has the Python programming language that we want to work with.
Now, the actual process of installing Anaconda is very straightforward.
Simply click on Continue.
Here are all of the packages that will be installed.
You don't need to worry about these at this point in time.
Let's move ahead and click on Continue.
Accept the license agreement.
That's, of course, a necessity.
If you click on the Continue button here, this will bring up a dialog
where you can select Agree. You've agreed to the license agreement.
You can proceed with the installation of Anaconda 3.
Click on the Install button and type in your admin password.
You'll need that to complete the install and keep moving forward.
Click on the Install software button here.
And this should get you set up with Anaconda and Python.
You can go ahead and
skip the step which asks you to install Microsoft VS code.
Click on Continue once again.
This will bring up an option that asks whether you want to move your
installer to trash. You no longer need it now that you have Anaconda set up.
You can choose either of these options, both are okay.
I'm going to choose to keep the installer around
even though I've completed installation.