Discovering what conda environments are and how to use them

In this section, you'll learn how to use a key feature of Anaconda that allows you to create separate spaces for your code: environments. You'll gain an understanding of what they are and how to create them in conda and in Navigator, as well as how to share those environments with others.

Let's start by making sure you have a clear understanding of what environments are and how they fit in with the other parts of conda.

There are the three core pillars of conda, environments, packages, and channels, and each is vital to know in order to master conda. We have already learned about packages in Chapter 2, Analyzing Open Source Software. Here, we will go through environments and channels using the analogy of getting food at the grocery store.

The first of the three pillars is environments. With our food analogy, let's say you are making spaghetti, with brownies for dessert. You need the milk and...