Feb 24-25, 2018
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Instructors: Balan Ramesh, Adnan Qureshi, Farah Shamma, Peace Ossom-Williamson, Jees Augustine, Anna Williford
Helpers: Ayda Mirsalehi, Devendra Umbrajkar, Nicky Hales, Omar Bibi, Daren Card, Joe Cloud
We hope these records from the workshop will encourage you to learn more about Python, Linux and Git/GitHub!
Lessons: View workshop lessons
Etherpad: etherpad notes, etherpad chat
Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.
Who: The course is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning new computational tools. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.
Where: UTA campus, Main Library, 6th floor. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
When: Feb 24-25, 2018. Add to your Google Calendar.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct.
Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:
Contact: Please email awillifo@uta.edu for more information.
Lessons: Our lessons are based on lessons developed by Software Carpentry Foundation
| 09:00 | Introduction and Pre-workshop Survey |
| 09:15 | Python basics 1 |
| 10:45 | Coffee |
| 11:00 | Python basics 2 |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
| 1:30 | Unix Shell 1 |
| 3:00 | Coffee |
| 3:15 | Unix Shell 2 |
| 5:00 | End |
| 09:00 | Python Programming |
| 10:45 | Coffee |
| 11:00 | Data Visualization with ggplot |
| 12:30 | Lunch break |
| 1:30 | Writing reports |
| 3:00 | Coffee |
| 3:15 | Intro to Git and Github |
| 4:45 | Post-workshop Survey |
| 5:00 | END |
We will use etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
To participate in a Software Carpentry workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.
Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.
This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.
The default shell in all versions of macOS is Bash, so no
need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal
(found in
/Applications/Utilities).
See the Git installation video tutorial
for an example on how to open the Terminal.
You may want to keep
Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
The default shell is usually Bash, but if your
machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a
terminal and typing bash. There is no need to
install anything.
Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on github.com. You will need a supported web browser (current versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari, or Internet Explorer version 9 or above).
You will need an account at github.com for parts of the Git lesson. Basic GitHub accounts are free. We encourage you to create a GitHub account if you don't have one already. Please consider what personal information you'd like to reveal. For example, you may want to review these instructions for keeping your email address private provided at GitHub.
Git should be installed on your computer as part of your Bash install (described above).
For OS X 10.9 and higher, install Git for Mac
by downloading and running the most recent "mavericks" installer from
this list.
After installing Git, there will not be anything in your /Applications folder,
as Git is a command line program.
For older versions of OS X (10.5-10.8) use the
most recent available installer labelled "snow-leopard"
available here.
If Git is not already available on your machine you can try to
install it via your distro's package manager. For Debian/Ubuntu run
sudo apt-get install git and for Fedora run
sudo dnf install git.
When you're writing code, it's nice to have a text editor that is
optimized for writing code, with features like automatic
color-coding of key words. The default text editor on macOS and
Linux is usually set to Vim, which is not famous for being
intuitive. if you accidentally find yourself stuck in it, try
typing the escape key, followed by :q! (colon, lower-case 'q',
exclamation mark), then hitting Return to return to the shell.
We recommend to have two text editors ready for this workshop:
1. nano is a basic editor for Unix-like operating systems that does not require graphical user interface.
To install it,
download the
Software Carpentry
Windows installer
and double click on the file to run it.
This installer requires an active internet connection.
2. Notepad++
Be aware that you must
add its installation directory to your system path.
To add Notepad++ to the path:
1) Open Git-Bash from the start menu.
2) Type: cd [enter] to make sure you are in your home directory.
3) Type: notepad .bashrc [enter]. This will create .bashrc file in Notepad.
Add the following text to the file:
export PATH=$PATH:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++"
alias npp=notepad++
Note: if Notepad++ is installed in `Program Files` folder, use: export PATH=$PATH:"C:\Program Files\Notepad++"
4) Save the file and exit Notepad.
5) Open a new Git-Bash window. You should now be able to launch Notepad++ by typing: npp [enter].
If you run into trouble please ask your instructor to help you with this.
We recommend to have two text editors ready for this workshop:
1. nano is a basic editor for Unix-like operating systems that does not require graphical user interface.
See the Git installation video tutorial
for an example on how to open nano.
It should be pre-installed.
We recommend to have two text editors ready for this workshop:
1. nano is a basic editor for Unix-like operating systems that does not require graphical user interface.
It should be pre-installed.
2. Gedit
Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.
Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.6 is fine).
We will teach Python using the Jupyter notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported (some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9 and below, are not).
bash Anaconda3-and then press tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear. If it does not, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file, for example with:
cd DownloadsThen, try again.
yes and
press enter to approve the license. Press enter to approve the
default location for the files. Type yes and
press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH
(this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).