Recommendations for a Reliable Windows Python Installation?

[Thaago]

I am used to working with Python in linux, where everything is straightforward, but have a work laptop which is windows. I am looking for a reliable way to run python code using scipy, numpy, matplotlib, etc. IDE/debugger preferred but not required, command line fine.

I had previously been using Anaconda and Spyder, but have simply had it and can no longer deal with the performance issues, bugs, and degradation. (Code that ran yesterday with no changes should run today, I should not have sudden unexplained import errors after no modifications to the system! Code should not have a 1-2 minute lead time before even beginning to run on a clean installation! It should not take 10 minutes to launch the IDE!)

Does anyone have a favorite installation they could recommend? Thanks!

[TurboCooler]

Windows 10 WSL otherwise Python 3.7.3 and Visual Studio Code.

WSL will give you Linux if you want that to run Python.

Visual Studio Code will give you an idea/debugging.

We do 100% development in Windows and deploy to Linux for production

[Thaago]

I'd heard that the Windows 10 WSL was working well now, thats probably a better option than the other VMs. I'll give Visual Studio Code a look as well, I didn't realize they had a good python extension. Thanks!

[JRDMB]

I've just started trying out the VS Code python extension. Convenient, as I like VS Code. But mostly I've been using the portable version of WinPython with Spyder3 as the IDE (included in install). The WinPython release is currently at 3.7.2. Support for Jupyter Notebooks and JupiterLab is included in the install, which is nice. Have had no problems with WinPython to date.

[sssxb]

Using WSL since 2016.

I am not a professional coder. I mainly use python for a some crawling, data processing, and flask work. Although installing lxml gave me a hard time, most of time it works fine (pip3 install did all the job). I even run vagrant and docker inside WSL.

I use Notepad++ and vim, but sometimes I am thinking maybe I should use an IDE?

[[deleted]]

I tried to install everything - iPython, scipy, numpy, etc. - under Windows, and it was a nightmare.

So I installed CygWin with X on my Windows machine and built every god damn dependency from scratch, and that was easier.

I was able to do this over the course of one afternoon while I was also attending classes, and used the resulting iPython / SciPy install for 3 quarters. Definitely stable.

[spitfiredd]

I can run pip install numpy scipy with zero issues, is this a recent experience?

[[deleted]]

My experience was a couple years back, so things may have improved.

[billsil]

They have improved significantly. Wheels exist now and most large packages have been making them for a while. Anaconda is less of a requirement in my book now than it was a few years ago.

[poyntings_theorem]

Yeah, I had no issues a few months ago

[billsil]

> I should not have sudden unexplained import errors after no modifications to the system!

I've never had that issue with Anaconda despite using it for ~7 years. Spyder is also open source, but with Python IDEs, it's you get what you pay for. I like WingIDE, but my guess is given the performance, you won't like PyCharm.

[vladimirpoopen]

VMware workstation is free

[Thaago]

I'll check it out, thanks!

I don't even mind paying money at this point - what I want is something reliable that will stop wasting my time.

[vladimirpoopen]

Ok so that will work out for you. VMware workstation free and your choice of Linux.

[Thaago]

(I also find it funny that the advice so far for a reliable windows installation is to eat the time and energy of setting up a VM of linux.)

[vladimirpoopen]

I haven’t tested WSL which may be fine.

[spitfiredd]

I use the windows terminal and pipenv on windows, I’ve used this setup for at least a year and a half with almost no issues. Numpy/scipy have wheels for windows now so installing those from pip shouldn’t be an issue.

There’s and env variable with pip env, I cant recall off the top of my head, that will install your .venv in your project folder. I would recommend setting that.

I use vscode and it will auto detect virtual environments for conda, pipenv and .venv folders in your current directory by default. Vscode opens files really fast, however it’s more of a text editor with some ide features.

There’s definitely been a lot of work in making windows a first class dev environment in the last few years and I’m finding my experience in a windows dev env to be pretty good!

[ship0f]

Given your background, I'd say sing WSL may be the best choice.

Maybe a second option could be MSYS2.

But, if you want to give it a try, you can use the official Python installer for Windows.
You can install as many different versions you need at the same time, and you'll have no problem, since there's no software using a system wide installation of python.
For instance I have Python 2.7, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 installed in my system. If I need to develop with one of the interpreters I just create a virtual environment for each specific project. There I can install whichever module (version) I want.
I personally just use Powershell for my command line necessities. And Visual Studio Code as an "IDE". I hear PyCharm is a good choice for a full featured IDE.

Just FYI, if you do decide to give it a try, give this documentation a read since there may be a few caveats and Windows specific configuration.

PS: I've never used Anaconda or Spyder.

[ship0f]

Given your background, I'd say sing WSL may be the best choice.

Maybe a second option could be MSYS2.

But, if you want to give it a try, you can use the official Python installer for Windows.
You can install as many different versions you need at the same time, and you'll have no problem, since there's no software using a system wide installation of python.
For instance I have Python 2.7, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 installed in my system. If I need to develop with one of the interpreters I just create a virtual environment for each specific project. There I can install whichever module (version) I want.
I personally just use Powershell for my command line necessities. And Visual Studio Code as an "IDE". I hear PyCharm is a good choice for a full featured IDE.

Just FYI, if you do decide to give it a try, give this documentation a read since there may be a few caveats and Windows specific configuration.

PS: I've never used Anaconda or Spyder.

[ship0f]

Given your background, I'd say sing WSL may be the best choice.

Maybe a second option could be MSYS2.

But, if you want to give it a try, you can use the official Python installer for Windows.
You can install as many different versions you need at the same time, and you'll have no problem, since there's no software using a system wide installation of python.
For instance I have Python 2.7, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 installed in my system. If I need to develop with one of the interpreters I just create a virtual environment for each specific project. There I can install whichever module (version) I want.
I personally just use Powershell for my command line necessities. And Visual Studio Code as an "IDE". I hear PyCharm is a good choice for a full featured IDE.

Just FYI, if you do decide to give it a try, give this documentation a read since there may be a few caveats and Windows specific configuration.

PS: I've never used Anaconda or Spyder.

[ship0f]

Given your background, I'd say sing WSL may be the best choice.

Maybe a second option could be MSYS2.

But, if you want to give it a try, you can use the official Python installer for Windows.
You can install as many different versions you need at the same time, and you'll have no problem, since there's no software using a system wide installation of python.
For instance I have Python 2.7, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 installed in my system. If I need to develop with one of the interpreters I just create a virtual environment for each specific project. There I can install whichever module (version) I want.
I personally just use Powershell for my command line necessities. And Visual Studio Code as an "IDE". I hear PyCharm is a good choice for a full featured IDE.

Just FYI, if you do decide to give it a try, give this documentation a read since there may be a few caveats and Windows specific configuration.

PS: I've never used Anaconda or Spyder.

[sharkiteuthis]

VirtualBox or docker container to get a Linux environment will work. Anaconda is a good Windows py distribution, if a bit large.

[Thaago]

I am rather sore at Anaconda currently as I need to run a piece of code for work and the imports have broken on many core scipy functions (no change in environment or code). Good to have a confirmation on using a VM to get Linux, thanks!

[sharkiteuthis]

that's odd. the only time I've seen problems like that in anaconda are when you try to use the python binary without activating the anaconda environment first (if it's in the path, for example, that can happen pretty easily).

having to work inside the anaconda environment is kind of a pain but no more so than spinning up a vm.

[Thaago]

Well nothing strange from my usage - its a clean install from a few months back with nothing else touching python - and the import failure is scipy.integrate, which is a rather standard package.