2  Environment Setup

In this chapter, we explain the steps needed to set up Python and Google OR-Tools. All the steps below are based on MacBook Air with M1 chip and macOS Ventura 13.1.

2.1 Install Homebrew

The first tool we need is Homebrew, ‘the Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux)’, and it can be accessed at https://brew.sh/. To install Homebrew, just copy the command below and run it in the Terminal.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

We can then use the brew --version command to check the installed version. On my system, it shows the info below.

 ~/ brew --version
Homebrew 3.6.20
Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision 5f1582e4d55; last commit 2023-02-05)
Homebrew/homebrew-cask (git revision fa3b8a669d; last commit 2023-02-05)

2.2 Install Anaconda

Since there are several Python versions available for our use and we may end up having multiple Python versions installed on our machine, it is important to use a consistent environment to work on our project in. Anaconda is a package and environment manager for Python and it provides easy-to-use tools to facilitate our data science needs. To install Anaconda, run the below command in the Terminal.

 ~/ brew install anaconda

After the installation is done, we can use conda --version to verify whether it is available on our machine or not.

 ~/ conda --version
conda 23.1.0

2.3 Create a Conda Environment

Now we will create a Conda environment named ‘ortools’. Execute the below command in the Terminal, which effectively creates the required environment with Python version 3.10.

 ~/ conda create -n ortools python=3.10
Retrieving notices: ...working... done
Collecting package metadata (current_repodata.json): done
Solving environment: done

## Package Plan ##

  environment location: /opt/homebrew/anaconda3/envs/test

  added / updated specs:
    - python=3.10


The following packages will be downloaded:

    package                    |            build
    ---------------------------|-----------------
    setuptools-67.4.0          |     pyhd8ed1ab_0         567 KB  conda-forge
    ------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Total:         567 KB

The following NEW packages will be INSTALLED:

  bzip2              conda-forge/osx-arm64::bzip2-1.0.8-h3422bc3_4
  ca-certificates    conda-forge/osx-arm64::ca-certificates-2022.12.7-h4653dfc_0
  libffi             conda-forge/osx-arm64::libffi-3.4.2-h3422bc3_5
  libsqlite          conda-forge/osx-arm64::libsqlite-3.40.0-h76d750c_0
  libzlib            conda-forge/osx-arm64::libzlib-1.2.13-h03a7124_4
  ncurses            conda-forge/osx-arm64::ncurses-6.3-h07bb92c_1
  openssl            conda-forge/osx-arm64::openssl-3.0.8-h03a7124_0
  pip                conda-forge/noarch::pip-23.0.1-pyhd8ed1ab_0
  python             conda-forge/osx-arm64::python-3.10.9-h3ba56d0_0_cpython
  readline           conda-forge/osx-arm64::readline-8.1.2-h46ed386_0
  setuptools         conda-forge/noarch::setuptools-67.4.0-pyhd8ed1ab_0
  tk                 conda-forge/osx-arm64::tk-8.6.12-he1e0b03_0
  tzdata             conda-forge/noarch::tzdata-2022g-h191b570_0
  wheel              conda-forge/noarch::wheel-0.38.4-pyhd8ed1ab_0
  xz                 conda-forge/osx-arm64::xz-5.2.6-h57fd34a_0


Proceed ([y]/n)?

Type ‘y’ to proceed and Conda will create the environment for us. We can use cnoda env list to show all the created environments on our machine:

 ~/ conda env list
# conda environments:
#
base                     /opt/homebrew/anaconda3
ortools                   /opt/homebrew/anaconda3/envs/ortools

Note that we need to manually activate an environemnt in order to use it: conda activate ortools. On my machine, the activated environment ortools will appear in the beginning of my prompt.

 ~/ conda activate ortools
(ortools)  ~/

2.4 Install Google OR-Tools

As of this writing, the latest version of Google OR-Tools is 9.5.2237, and we can install it in our newly created environment using the command pip install ortools==9.5.2237. We can use conda list to verify whether it is available in our environment.

(ortools)  ~/ conda list
# packages in environment at /opt/homebrew/anaconda3/envs/ortools:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
absl-py                   1.4.0                    pypi_0    pypi
bzip2                     1.0.8                h3422bc3_4    conda-forge
ca-certificates           2022.12.7            h4653dfc_0    conda-forge
libffi                    3.4.2                h3422bc3_5    conda-forge
libsqlite                 3.40.0               h76d750c_0    conda-forge
libzlib                   1.2.13               h03a7124_4    conda-forge
ncurses                   6.3                  h07bb92c_1    conda-forge
numpy                     1.24.2                   pypi_0    pypi
openssl                   3.0.8                h03a7124_0    conda-forge
ortools                   9.5.2237                 pypi_0    pypi
pip                       23.0.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
protobuf                  4.22.0                   pypi_0    pypi
python                    3.10.9          h3ba56d0_0_cpython    conda-forge
readline                  8.1.2                h46ed386_0    conda-forge
setuptools                67.4.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tk                        8.6.12               he1e0b03_0    conda-forge
tzdata                    2022g                h191b570_0    conda-forge
wheel                     0.38.4             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
xz                        5.2.6                h57fd34a_0    conda-forge

Now we have Python and Google OR-Tools ready, we can start our next journey.