Merge pull request #1581 from ChrisBarker-NOAA/conda_notes

Updated notes about conda

Author: webknjaz

source/conf.py

@@ -133,6 +133,7 @@
     # https://github.com/pypa/packaging.python.org/pull/1474
     "https://stackoverflow.com/*",
     "https://pyscaffold.org/*",
+    "https://anaconda.org",
 ]
 linkcheck_retries = 5
 # Ignore anchors for links to GitHub project pages -- GitHub adds anchors from

source/guides/installing-scientific-packages.rst

@@ -14,13 +14,13 @@ In particular, `NumPy <https://numpy.org/>`__, which provides the basis
 for most of the software in the `scientific Python stack
 <https://scientific-python.org>`_ can be configured
 to interoperate with different FORTRAN libraries, and can take advantage
-of different levels of vectorised instructions available in modern CPUs.
+of different levels of vectorized instructions available in modern CPUs.
 
 Starting with version 1.10.4 of NumPy and version 1.0.0 of SciPy, pre-built
 32-bit and 64-bit binaries in the ``wheel`` format are available for all major
 operating systems (Windows, macOS, and Linux) on PyPI. Note, however, that on
 Windows, NumPy binaries are linked against the `ATLAS
-<http://www.netlib.org/atlas/>`__ BLAS/LAPACK library, restricted to SSE2
+<https://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/>`__ BLAS/LAPACK library, restricted to SSE2
 instructions, so they may not provide optimal linear algebra performance.
 
 There are a number of alternative options for obtaining scientific Python
@@ -118,21 +118,22 @@ be loaded and unloaded from the user's environment.
 The conda cross-platform package manager
 ----------------------------------------
 
-`Anaconda <https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual/>`_ is a Python distribution
-published by Anaconda, Inc. It is a stable collection of Open Source
-packages for big data and scientific use.  As of the 5.0 release of Anaconda,
-about 200 packages are installed by default, and a total of 400-500 can be
-installed and updated from the Anaconda repository.
-
 ``conda`` is an open source (BSD licensed) package management system and
-environment management system included in Anaconda that allows users to install
+environment management system that allows users to install
 multiple versions of binary software packages and their dependencies, and
 easily switch between them. It is a cross-platform tool working on Windows,
-macOS, and Linux. Conda can be used to package up and distribute all kinds of
+MacOS, and Linux. Conda can be used to package up and distribute all kinds of
 packages, it is not limited to just Python packages. It has full support for
 native virtual environments. Conda makes environments first-class citizens,
 making it easy to create independent environments even for C libraries. It is
 written in Python, but is Python-agnostic. Conda manages Python itself as a
 package, so that :command:`conda update python` is possible, in contrast to
-pip, which only manages Python packages. Conda is available in Anaconda and
-Miniconda (an easy-to-install download with just Python and conda).
+pip, which only manages Python packages.
+
+Anaconda `Anaconda <https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/>`_ is a Python distribution published by Anaconda, Inc. It is a stable collection of Open Source packages for big data and scientific use, and a collection of Graphical Interface utilities for managing conda environments.
+
+In addition to the full distribution provided by Anaconda, the conda package manager itself is available in  `miniconda <https://docs.anaconda.com/miniconda/>`_, `miniforge <https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge>`_, and `pixi <https://pixi.sh/>`_.
+
+
+Conda packages are available on multiple channels on Anaconda.org, including the
+default channel supported by Anaconda, Inc, the community supported conda-forge channel, which provides a wide variety of pre-built packages, and some domain-specific package collections.

source/key_projects.rst

@@ -404,26 +404,30 @@ conda
 
 :doc:`Docs <conda:index>`
 
-conda is the package management tool for `Anaconda
-<https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/>`__ Python installations.
-Anaconda Python is a distribution from `Anaconda, Inc
-<https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual>`__ specifically aimed at the scientific
-community, and in particular on Windows where the installation of binary
-extensions is often difficult.
+Conda is a package, dependency, and environment management system for any language — Python, R,
+Ruby, C/C++, Fortran, and more. It is written in Python and
+widely used in the Python scientific computing community, due to its support for non-Python
+compiled libraries and extensions. It is used as the basis of the `Anaconda
+<https://docs.anaconda.com/anaconda/>`__ Python distribution from Anaconda, Inc. It was originally
+aimed at the scientific community, but can also be used on its own, or with the
+:doc:`miniconda <conda:miniconda>`, `miniforge <https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge>`_ or
+`pixi <https://pixi.sh/>`_ systems. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
 
 Conda is a completely separate tool from :ref:`pip`, virtualenv and wheel, but provides
-many of their combined features in terms of package management, virtual environment
-management and deployment of binary extensions.
-
-Conda does not install packages from PyPI and can install only from
-the official Anaconda repositories, or anaconda.org (a place for
-user-contributed *conda* packages), or a local (e.g. intranet) package
-server.  However, note that :ref:`pip` can be installed into, and work
-side-by-side with conda for managing :term:`distributions
-<Distribution Package>` from PyPI. Also, `conda skeleton
-<https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda-build/en/latest/user-guide/tutorials/build-pkgs-skeleton.html>`__
-is a tool to make Python packages installable by conda by first
-fetching them from PyPI and modifying their metadata.
+many of their combined features, such as package management, virtual environment
+management and deployment of binary extensions and other binary code.
+
+Conda does not install packages from PyPI -- it can only manage packages built specifically
+for conda, which can be made available on a "conda channel", such as those hosted on
+`anaconda.org <https://anaconda.org>`__, or a local (e.g. intranet) package server.
+In addition to the "default" channels managed by `Anaconda, Inc. <https://www.anaconda.com/>`__, there are a wide variety of packages from the community supported
+`conda-forge project <https://conda-forge.org/>`__
+
+Note that :ref:`pip` can be installed into, and work side-by-side with conda
+for managing :term:`distributions <Distribution Package>` from PyPI. It is also possible
+to build conda packages from Python source packages using tools such as
+`conda skeleton
+<https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda-build/en/latest/user-guide/tutorials/build-pkgs-skeleton.html>`__: a tool to automatically make conda packages from Python packages available on PyPI.
 
 .. _devpi: