anaconda and spyder anaconda and spyder anaconda is free python distribution produced by continuum analytics and contains about python packagesas well as python itselffor doing wide range of scientific computations anaconda can be downloaded from downloads choose python version the integrated development environment (idespyder is included with anaconda and is our recommended tool for writing and running python programs on mac and windowsunless you have preference for plain text editor for writing programs and terminal window for running them spyder on mac spyder is started by typing spyder in (newterminal application if you get an error message unknown localeyou need to type the following line in the terminal applicationor preferably put the line in your $homebashrc unix initialization fileexport lang=en_us utf- export lc_all=en_us utf- installation of additional packages anaconda installs the pip tool that is handy to install additional packages in terminal application on mac or in powershell terminal on windowswrite terminal pip install --user packagename how to write and run python program you have basically three choices to develop and test python program use text editor and terminal window use an integrated development environment (ide)like spyderwhich offers window with text editor and functionality to run programs and observe the output use the ipython notebook the ipython notebook is briefly descried in sect while the other two options are outlined below