Getting to Know Conda: Why Should We Create New Environments with Conda?

## Why Should You Use Conda to Create New Environments?

### 1. Introduction to Conda
#### 1.1 What is Conda?
- Conda is an open-source package and environment management system and package manager that can be used to install, manage, and uninstall software.
- It can manage packages for Python as well as software written in any programming language.
- Conda is a part of the Anaconda distribution but can also be used as an independent tool called Miniconda.

#### 1.2 Differences Between Conda and pip
| Feature | Conda | pip |
|-------------------|-----------------------|----------------------|
| Management Scope | Managing packages and environments | Managing only Python packages |
| Dependency Management | Resolving dependency conflicts | Installing specific library versions only |
| Cross-Platform | Cross-platform | Supports Python only |
| Software Sources | Conda repositories | PyPI repositories |
| Packaging and Distribution | Has a packaging tool | No packaging tool |

#### 1.3 Advantages of Conda
1. Strong cross-platform support for multiple operating systems including Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
2. Broad management scope capable of handling packages across different programming languages.
3. Ability to resolve dependency conflicts, avoiding interference between different projects.
4. Convenient for creating, exporting, and sharing environment configurations, facilitating team collaboration and application deployment.

With this introduction, readers can gain a preliminary understanding of the basic concepts and advantages of Conda, laying a foundation for further in-depth understanding of the necessity of environment management.

### 2. Necessity of Environment Management

In order to effectively manage dependency relationships and environment configurations during project development, creating new environments is crucial. Here’s why environment management is necessary:

1. **Why is it necessary to create new environments?**
- To avoid dependency conflicts between different projects and ensure project independence and stability.
- To customize the required software packages and their versions for different projects or applications, ensuring smooth project operation.

2. **Solving Dependency Conflicts**
- Environment isolation can prevent conflicts between different package versions, ensuring compatibility for project dependencies.
- Different versions of packages required for different projects can be flexibly configured in separate environments.

3. **Enhancing Project Portability and Reproducibility**
- Creating environments ensures that projects can run normally on different computers or servers, enhancing project portability.
- By recording environment configurations, the project running environment can be easily reproduced, facilitating collaborative development and environment deployment.

Next, we will demonstrate how to use Conda to solve dependency conflicts and enhance project portability through example code and flowcharts.

#### Example Scenario:
Suppose there are two projects A and B, both relying on different versions of the same Python package. To avoid dependency conflicts, we need to manage these dependencies in two separate environments.

#### Code Example:

# Create an environment named projectA and install the required dependencies
conda create --name projectA python=3.7
conda activate projectA
conda install numpy pandas

# Create an environment named projectB and install the required dependencies
conda create --name projectB python=3.8
conda activate projectB
conda install numpy=1.19 pandas

#### Flowchart Example:

graph LR
     A[Project A] -- Dependency --> B[Library 1]
     C[Project B] -- Dependency --> D[Library 1]
     E[Project B] -- Dependency --> F[Library 2]

In the above example, Project A and Project B rely on different versions of `Library 1`. By using Conda to create two separate environments, dependency conflicts can be resolved, ensuring the independent and stable operation of Projects A and B.

### 3. Installing and Configuring Conda

In this chapter, we will delve into how to install and configure Conda and master some basic commands for managing environments.

1. **How to Install Conda?**
- Conda installation is quite simple. First, download the appropriate version of Anaconda or Miniconda installation package a