Week 1, Day 1: Monday, July 10
Synopsis
Week 1 is dedicated to developing background knowledge of the computing environment that the participants need to bring to Weeks 2 and 3, the editing and publishing portions of the Institute. Topic areas include:
- Operating system conventions (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Working with files, programs, and the command line
- Regular expressions
- Understanding programming and naming conventions
- Understanding how the Internet and the Web work
- Python clinic: applying Python programming skills in a coding project
- Git and GitHub for collaborative code development
- Don’t panic: documentation and error messages
Outcome goals
- Know your machine: Windows, Mac, and Linux users will all have different experiences and knowledge. Sometimes (= much of the time) the steps toward completing a task or solving a problem may depend on the operating system
- What are files, directories, and programs?
- Directory navigation and file manipulation
- Understand and deal with error messages
Legend
- Presentation: by instructors
- Discussion: instructors and participants
- Talk lab: participants discuss or plan in small groups
- Code lab: participants code alone or in small groups
9:00–10:30: Getting to know your OS for Mac and Windows
Mac and Windows users will split into breakout groups so that participants can focus on how to work in their specific environments. How does your OS both facilitate and inhibit your work now, and how might that change?
| Time | Topic | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 15 min | Introduction and technology setup | Presentation |
| 25 min | Your machine, your files | Talk lab |
| 25 min | Navigating through the file system | Code lab |
| 25 min | External drives, administration, and system variables | Presentation |
10:30–11:00: Coffee break
11:00–12:30: Command line 1 for Mac and Windows
What is a shell? How do we use it? In breakout groups, we begin working at the command line by navigating through our filesystems a step at a time.
| Time | Topic | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 90 min | macOS (in Alumni Hall 531) Windows (in Alumni Hall 528) The Software Carpentry activities associated with the Mac Command line 1 session are: 1. Introducing the Shell. 2. Navigating Files and Directories 3. Working with Files and Directories | Presentation |
12:30–2:00: Lunch
2:00–3:30: Programs and files 1
Now that we know where to find them and what they are, how can we manipulate and use files and directories for our benefit?
| Time | Topic | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 15 min | File types | Presentation |
| 30 min | Character sets, Unicode, and text editors | Code lab |
| 25 min | Operating system conventions | Code lab |
| 20 min | A shell is just a program | Code lab |
3:30–4:00: Coffee break
4:00–5:30: Don’t panic: interpretation of error messages
| Time | Topic | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 90 min | Stack traces and other error reports | Discussion |
We’ll end each day with a request for feedback, based on a general version of the day’s outcome goals, and we’ll try to adapt on the fly to your responses. Please complete Week 1, Day 1 feedback (just copy and paste it into a plain-text document) and email your response to Kaylen at kaylensanders@pitt.edu with the subject heading “Week 1, Day 1 feedback”.