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 if you have a Windows machine.
Simply type in onto your browser window, install Anaconda on Windows.
And this will bring up a number of hits on your favorite search engine.
What is Anaconda and what are all these serpent references?
You know that Python is a programming language. Anaconda is an open-source
distribution of the Python and R programming languages.
Open source means that they're completely free for
any developer to download and use.
Here, we're not really interested in R, we'll focus our attention on Python.
When we use the Anaconda distribution, not only do we get
the Python programming language, we also get a package called Conda.
Conda is what is termed as a package manager.
Now, you might be aware that when you're working with Python,
you have dozens of libraries that you can use to solve common problems.
Now, these range from very complicated libraries for machine learning
and data science to simple libraries for array manipulation to libraries that
allow you to download content from websites, scrape the web, etc.
The package manager is what allows you to install these libraries easily.
It does all of the difficult heavy lifting for you behind the scenes.
With this brief introduction of the Anaconda distribution and
the Conda package manager out of the way,
let's get set up on Windows with Python using the Anaconda distribution.
Click on this link here which shows you how you can get Anaconda on Windows.
Here we are on the install page.
Observe that the Anaconda distribution can be installed
on any operating system, Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and so on.
If you have a different operating system, you can simply select the link for
your OS.
In this particular course, we will cover installing
Python with the Anaconda distribution on Windows as well as on the Mac.
Click on the link which says Download the Anaconda installer.
This will take you to the install page
which should automatically detect your operating system.
But sometimes that doesn't really work.
So, I'm going to go ahead and select my operating system here.
I'm going to select on the Windows tab here
which will give me the right software for my Windows machine.
Select the Windows option and here we have it.
This is the latest version of the Anaconda software for
Windows available at the time of this recording.
Now, the first thing that will jump out at you when you look at this page is
the fact that there are two versions of Python, Python 3.7 and Python 2.7.
Why are there two versions and which one should you chose?
Now, this is something that newbie programmers often get tripped up with.
Now, Python has been around a long time and
there are many older projects build using the older Python 2.7 version.
It's still fully supported and widely used.
There is no difference in the fundamental programming concepts and
the language itself between the two versions.
But there are many subtle differences that can trip up a new programmer.
If you're starting afresh and you have no old code to deal with,
you should start with Python 3.
That is the Python version that will be supported in the future
and all new projects use Python 3.
All of the programs that we'll write in this course and
on other courses in this path will use Python 3.
With this in mind, let's go ahead and
select the Download button here for Python 3.7.
This is the latest version of Python at the time of this recording.
Selecting Download will bring up a download window
and you can select where you want this EXE file to be located.
Choose the download location that makes sense for
you and click on the Save button to download this application.
Once the executable to install the Anaconda software on your machine has
been downloaded,
you can go ahead and open it up and start the installation process.
And this will bring up this really simple dialog where you simply
follow instructions on this dialog in order to get Anaconda and
Python set up on your machine.
Click on Next through every screen.
Make sure you agree with the license agreement.
Click on the I Agree button here and move on to the next page.
Now, your machine might have multiple users.
Here is where you make the choice of whether you want this Anaconda
distribution and Python installed for all users or only for yourself.
If you install for all users,
you need to be an administrator on your machine.
Since I am the administrator here, I'm going to go ahead and
select All Users.
Click on the Next button to proceed with the installation.
Decide where the destination folder for this installation should be.
If that's okay with you, click on Next once again and move on.
This will take you to a page which shows you some advanced installation
options.
Now, the particular detail that you need to pay attention to is
whether you want to use this distribution of Python
as the Python version used by the system as a whole.
What does this mean?
Now, you might have other versions of Python installed on your local machine.
If you click and select this check box, this version of Python that we
are installing using Anaconda will be the version that applies by default.
Well, that's exactly what I want.
I want to make sure that we do all of our demos using this
latest version of Python.
So, I am going to select this check box and click on the Install button.
And now, just wait for a few seconds till the installer does its job and
completes the installation of the Anaconda distribution on your machine.
Click on the Next button. This will show you the options for
additional software packages that you can install on Windows.
Let's skip this.
We're only focused on Anaconda and Python.
And let's move on to the next page.
And here we are at the end of our installation.
You now have Python on your local machine.
It's as simple as that.
Click on the Finish button here. And you've successfully installed and
set up Python using the Anaconda distribution.