MISY350 – Anaconda and VSCode Configuration

Table of Contents

Install Anaconda

Download Anaconda Individual Edition from the following link: https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual
Follow the steps in the installer.
Launch Anaconda
If prompted to upgrade Anaconda, CHOOSE NO

To create a new Python environment, open Anaconda Navigator and select Environments on the left
Click the Update Index… button
Once that finishes updating, click Create down near the bottom
Name your environment.
You’ll want to use Python 3.7 or newer.
Once created, you will need to install your packages.

In the list of packages to the right, change the dropdown menu from “Installed” to “Not Installed”
Begin searching for your packages, one by one. To select the package, click the checkbox by its name.
- You’ll need to search for:
  - pillow
  - django
- Your professor will tell you if you need additional packages
Once you have these packages selected, click the “Apply” button and wait for the install packages dialog to finish “Solving” the specifications
Anaconda should install them. You can verify that they have been installed by searching the “Installed” list to see that they are there.
- If they are not available, check to see how much space you have on your computer’s hard drive.
Close Anaconda Navigator.

Find the installer for VSCode for your system from the Visual Studio Code website.

Follow the steps in the installer.

Open Visual Studio Code
- Do not launch VSCode from Anaconda Navigator.
Along the left side of the screen, look for the “Files” icon.
Click “Open Folder” and locate and select your MISY350 folder.
- You may be prompted to trust the authors of files in the folder. Click “Yes, I trust the authors”

On Windows, choose the File Menu. On MacOS, choose the Code menu.
Choose Preferences, then select Extensions
Scroll through the list, and click the Install button for Python
- If you are prompted to install Command Line Developer Tools on MacOS, it may say it will run for an incredibly long amount of time. Click away from the screen (do NOT hit “stop”) and continue on. It will run in the background and usually complete within 20 minutes.
Once the Extensions are installed, you may be prompted to select your Python Interpreter.

If you do not see this prompt, you can still open the Python Interpreter option
Press CONTROL+SHIFT+P which will open the preferences command. On MacOs type ⌘ + shift + P.
Type python interpreter, and choose Python: Select Interpreter.
Choose the interpreter for your MISY350 environment.

Inherit Environment will cause myriad issues in VSCode on MacOS, causing it to not recognize the correct Python interpreter.

While VSCode is open, go to the Code menu and select Preferences and then Settings.
Type Inherit env in the search bar.
Look for “Terminal > Integrated: Inherit Env“
If this is checked, please uncheck it.
Restart VSCode by Quitting the application. This can be achieved by going to the Code menu and choosing Quit. Reopen the application afterward.

On Windows, VScode will want to use Powershell, which doesn’t really run Python well.

For Mac Users, you likely will not need to do this. If you do need to, you can follow these steps, but you will be changing bash to zsh.

Click on the down arrow by the + on the right of the Terminal window
Click Select Default Profile
When the default profile options at the top open, choose command prompt
Mac Users: Choose zsh
Click the + sign by the terminal window, and it should open a new CMD line terminal, which should allow you to execute your Python code.
(Optional) Click the Trashcan by the old terminal to close it

Now that this is all done, your environment should be configured and ready to go!