layout | title | description |
---|---|---|
default |
Setup |
Set yourself up before getting started! |
There are a few computing requirements for the course that are absolutely necessary (beyond the few software packages we would like you to install, described below):
- You must have administrator access to your computer (i.e., you must be able to install things yourself without requesting IT approval).
- You must have at least 40 GB of free disk space on your computer (but we would recommend more, to be safe).
- If you are using Windows you must be using Windows 10; Windows 7 and 8 will not be sufficient for this course.
If you foresee any of these being a problem please reach out to one of the instructors for what steps you can take to ensure you are ready for the course start on July 26th.
To get the most out of our course, we ask that you arrive with the following software already installed:
- A command-line shell: Bash
- A version control system: Git
- A remote-capable text editor: VSCode
- Python 3 via Miniconda
- A virtualization system: Docker
- A GitHub account
- Slack
- Zoom
- A modern browser
The rest of this page provides more detail on installation procedures for each of the above elements, with separate instructions for each of the three major operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux).
- There is no difference between
Enter
andReturn
in these instructions, so just press whatever the equivalent on your keyboard is whenever one is stated - If you already have some of these things installed on your computer already that should (theoretically) be okay.
- However, for example, having multiple different Python installations on your computer can lead to incredibly frustrating issues that are very difficult to debug. As such, if you have already installed Python via some other application (not Miniconda/Anaconda), we strongly encourage you to uninstall it before following the instructions below. You must have Python installed via Miniconda for this course.
Select the link that corresponds to your operating system and follow the instructions therein.
Go to https://github.com/join/ and follow the on-screen instructions to create an account. It is a good idea to associate this with your university e-mail (if you have one) as this will entitle you to sign up for the GitHub Student Developer Pack which comes with some nice free bonuses.
Go to https://slack.com/downloads/ and download and install Slack.
Go to https://zoom.us/download and download and install the Zoom client.
Install Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.