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Installation

Virtual Environment Manager

We use Python virtual environment manager such as conda or mamba for several reasaons:

  1. Package management: conda or mamba are package managers that can help you install, update, and manage Python packages with ease.
  2. Environment management: when working on multiple projects or collaborating with others, you may encounter situations where different projects require different versions of Python or its dependencies. conda or mamba can create isolated environments that allow you to switch between different versions of Python and packages without conflicting with each other.
  3. Cross-platform compatibility: conda and mamba are cross-platform tools that can help you manage Python packages and environments on Windows, MacOS, and Linux systems. This makes it easier to develop and deploy Python applications across different operating systems.

We recommend using miniforge / mambaforge or miniconda instead of the Anaconda installer because they are more light-weight. If you have not installed conda or mamba yet, we recommend installing mamba using the following installers.

OS Architecture Download
Linux x86_64 (amd64) Mambaforge-Linux-x86_64
Linux aarch64 (arm64) Mambaforge-Linux-aarch64
Linux ppc64le (POWER8/9) Mambaforge-Linux-ppc64le
OS Architecture Download
OS X x86_64 Mambaforge-MacOSX-x86_64
OS X arm64 (Apple Silicon) Mambaforge-MacOSX-arm64
OS Architecture Download
Windows x86_64 Mambaforge-Windows-x86_64

Make the shell script executable, run the script, and follow the instructions to complete installation. For example, run the following code in a terminal on MacOS.

chmod +x ./Mambaforge-MacOSX-arm64.sh
./Mambaforge-MacOSX-arm64.sh

Why choose mamba over conda?

Mamba is a high-speed package manager that is designed to be a drop-in replacement for conda. It can provide faster package installations and updates, especially for large packages or complex dependencies. Mamba also has a more efficient dependency solver that can handle complex dependency graphs with fewer conflicts than conda.

If you have already installed conda, you can also install mamba by

conda install mamba -c conda-forge

Now we can create a virtual environment for the PyPolo project:

mamba create -n pypolo python=3.8
mamba activate pypolo

conda create -n pypolo python=3.8
conda activate pypolo

Install PyPolo

mamba install -c conda-forge pyvista
git clone https://github.com/Weizhe-Chen/PyPolo.git
cd PyPolo
pip install -e .

If you would like to become a PyPolo developer and contribute to the project, please make sure to install the following development tools by running the command:

pip install -r requirements_dev.txt
mamba install lxml
pip install -r docs/requirements.txt

The documentation website can be launched locally via

mkdocs serve

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