One of the things I want to do now that I have some time is get my head around all the modern AI stuff. I'm starting with a review or things I've already done by going through Andrew Ng's Coursera ML class. I'll probably continue with his courses but I'm certainly open to any suggestions (specifically for a CS guy who's not so strong on the math side).

This means diving back into Python even though Clojure is usually my weapon of choice. I thought I'd see how the platform has changed.

First up Anaconda which is a platform and package manager for Python. I opted for Miniconda which just gives the basics and I can always add anything missing later.

See the previous two links to install Anaconda or Miniconda. The video goes over basic use. It's a lot like virtualenv. You can set up an Python environment with specific packages and then activate or deactivate whichever environment you wish to work under.

On the Emacs side, I installed the package conda as follows:

      (use-package conda :straight t
        :config
        (conda-env-initialize-interactive-shells)
        (conda-env-initialize-eshell))

And that was pretty much it. To activate an particular environment we just use conda-env-actiate. Again, this is covered in the video.

Next up is direnv. This lets you customize your environment per directory. You can do things like set specific environment variables or even, in our case, activate a conda environment just by going into a project directory. Basic installation instructions can be found on the home page.

To set up direnv to work with Anaconda/Miniconda though took a bit of work. Between a few web sites and videos, I found that this worked.

First, I had to create a file named .direnvrc in my home directory with these contents:

  layout_conda() {
    # Ref Url: https://github.com/direnv/direnv/wiki/Python
    # local ANACONDA_HOME=”${HOME}/anaconda3"
    # PATH_add “$ANACONDA_HOME”/bin1
    if [ -n "$1" ]; then
    # Explicit environment name from layout command.
    local env_name="$1"
    source activate ${env_name}
    elif (grep -q name: environment.yml); then
    # Detect environment name from `environment.yml` file in `.envrc` directory
    source activate `grep name: environment.yml | sed -e ‘s/name: //’ | cut -d
    "‘" -f 2 | cut -d ‘"‘ -f 2`
    else
    (>&2 echo No environment specified);
    exit 1;
    fi;
    }

You might have to play with it if you're not using the miniconda installation defaults.

Next, I had to edit my .zshrc:

    
    export iam="$(whoami)"
    export CONDA_HOME="/home/${iam}/miniconda3"

    [[ ":${PATH}:" != *":${CONDA_HOME}/bin:"* ]] && export PATH="${CONDA_HOME}/bin:${PATH}"

    # <<< my export init <<<

    # >>> conda initialize >>>
    # !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
    __conda_setup="$('/home/zamansky/miniconda3/bin/conda' 'shell.zsh' 'hook' 2> /dev/null)"
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        eval "$__conda_setup"
    else
        if [ -f "/home/zamansky/miniconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" ]; then
            . "/home/zamansky/miniconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
        else
            export PATH="/home/zamansky/miniconda3/bin:$PATH"
        fi
    fi
    unset __conda_setup
    # <<< conda initialize <<<

    export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
    eval "$(direnv hook zsh)"

Some of that was added when I installed direnv and followed those directions. I think for the direnv Anaconda support I added the first two lines and the last one.

Finally, in your project's root directory create a file named .envrc which contains the line layout conda name where name is replaced with the name of the conda environment you want.

The first time you go into the directory it will tell you that you haven't allowed direnv to work there yet and you have to enter direnv allow. After you do that, every time you enter that directory it will activate your conda environment, leave it, it will deactivate it.

In Emacs, I found two packages that worked pretty much the same. One named direnv and the other envrc. I opted for envrc.

You simply add:

  (use-package envrc :straight t
    :config (envrc-global-mode))

to your config and when you open a file in that directory, it will use direnv.

Important note:

That's pretty much it. This all worked on my desktop but it's giving me problems on my laptop. It appears that conda mode isn't working. It allows me to select the environment but it doesn't actually activate it. I think it's a path issue even though I think both my desktop and laptop are the same. I'll update this once I figure out what's up on the laptop side.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. I love that I can automatically start an environment just by accessing a file in the directory. Too many times, I forget and mess things up.

The video steps through everything and demos both packages:

Enjoy!