[FIXED] Spyder IDE Unittest Plugin does it matter which conda channel

Issue

The github repo for the Spyder IDE Unittest Plugin lists only 2 options for installing the plugin: using the conda spyder-ide channel, as well as pip.

I have been able to install the plugin using the conda forge channel, as indicated in here.

Does it make a difference which channel is used to install the plugin ?

Solution

Short answer: no it shouldn't make a difference.

Longer answer: before pressing y at the Proceed ([y]/n? prompt you may want to check which versions of any dependencies are going to be installed, and which channels they will be installed from - especially if you are installing into an existing environment where you may want to upgrade other packages later. If you're happy for your environment to become dependent on packages from conda-forge, there's no issue with using the conda-forge package; otherwise (unless someone more knowledgeable can correct me) I would try and stick to the spyder-ide channel package.

This article on the conda-forge website says

The conda-forge and defaults are not 100% compatible. (...) that mismatch can lead to errors when the install environment is mixing packages from multiple channels.

For a longer discussion see the answers to this question.

As always, this advice from the conda-forge page is worth following:

we recommend always installing your packages inside a new environment instead of the base environment from anaconda/miniconda. Using envs make it easier to debug problems with packages and ensure the stability of your root env.

Answered By - nekomatic