Installing SDSS_Catl_Utils using a virtual environment

If you use conda to manage your python distribution and package dependencies, it is easy to create a virtual environment that will authomatically have compatible versions of the necessary depedencies required by SDSS_Catl_Utils. By installing into a virtual environment, you will not change any of the packages that are already installed system-wide on your machine. In the example below, we will use conda to create a virtual environment with all the dependencies handled automatically:

conda create -n sdss_catl_utils_env astropy numpy scipy h5py requests cython python=3.6

In order to activate this environment:

source activate sdss_catl_utils_env

Then install sdss_catl_utils into this environment:

pip install sdss_catl_utils

Any additional packages you install in the sdss_catl_utils virtual environment will not impact your system-wide environment. Whenever you want to do science involving SDSS_Catl_Utils, just activate the environment and import the code. When you are done and wish to return to your normal system environment:

source deactivate