Install with current python version

I am a little confused about something simple… I want to install psychopy, but I already have python (v 3.9.1) that I use regularly. I don’t want psychopy to install another version of python (if I can help it) because this then supersedes my actual python installation on the PATH, and typing python in the command prompt invokes the PsychoPy installation of python.

I want to use builder to write my experiments, but there isn’t much information about pip installing psychopy - does it come with builder? Are there any issues that could arise from doing this? Is this even what I should be doing? Is it possible to use the standalone and not add psychopy’s python to the PATH, or even just specify my current installation? I have read the installation page but I am still unclear.

Do wait for others to reply before jumping into anything, but I guess you can use anaconda to manage your environments, and install psychopy as a seperate conda environment, which will not interfere with your main python installation. Install anaconda to your computer and create a virtual environment, then use pip to install psychopy and you should be good to go. I guess if you install psychopy on top of your current python (using the installer) you may indeed mess up path variables.

Also you can install Psychopy using pip alongside your current python installation and indeed it will come with the builder. However, psychopy has many libraries coming with itself, which may cause conflicts within your system. For example, it took me awhile to notice that all of my deep learning work was actually being installed to the psychopy environment, which was on an older version of numpy, hence caused many issues for me while I was running neural networks.

I suggest you use conda to manage your environments and even for your main python installation! It is very handy. I keep my environments for fMRI data analysis, data analysis using pandas and deep learning work all seperate. Conda is great for such situations which several libraries may conflict with eachother.

Thank you for the reply Tamer! That does indeed sound like a good plan. I was not considering using anaconda for this because I had some issues in the past with conda environments. I will try and just use venv first and then if that fails I’ll try conda.

Tamer is correct that something like Anaconda is a great way to maintain separate environments so that you don’t get conflicts between different Python installations. But you also state that you want to use Builder - in that case, the much simpler route is to simply install the standalone application. It has Python and all of its other dependencies bundled inside it. It won’t interfere in any way with your current Python installation. Just open it like any other GUI app.

Thanks - I’ve already uninstalled the standalone version and set it up with Anaconda. It wasn’t conflicting with python, but typing Python at the command line brought up the PsychoPy installation which was bugging me. Python itself wasn’t on the system path but on the user path so I couldn’t simply change its position either.