PyScripter and Anaconda

In the past I have used successfully  PyScripter with Miniconda distributions, but since there have been a few issues reported regarding the compatibility of PyScripter with Anaconda distributions, I decided to investigate.   I downloaded the latest version of the Anaconda distribution (Python 3.7.3) and installed it registering it as the default Python 3.7 distibution.

Installation issues

After the installation the Anaconda Navigator and pip did not work.  This appears to be a long standing issue that apparently has not been fixed.  The solution that worked for me is the last answer in this Stack overflow question (copy the two files from CONDA_PATH\Library\bin to CONDA_PATH\DLLs).  Note, that if you create virtual environments and want to use pip inside them, you need to repeat the above steps for the created environements.

Another annoyance is that the Python help file is missing.  To correct you can copy the Doc folder from a corresponding python installation from python.org to the Anaconda folder.

PyScripter issues with Anaconda

PyScripter failed to work out of the box with the installed distribution (crashed without any error message).  I successfully managed to used PyScripter with Anaconda, by running it from inside an Anaconda prompt.   I then realized that Anaconda requires that certain folders are in the Windows path.  The installation program gives you the option of modifying the path, but it recommends to not do so.  So I suspect that most users including me do not modify the Windows path and I have made some changes to PyScripter to adjust the Windows path on the fly when using conda distributions.

To make a long story short, the forthcoming version 3.6.1 provides a much smoother out-of-the-box integration with Anaconda and conda created virtual environments.