New York Public Library
New York CityAug 6-7, 2014
9:00 am - 4:30 pm
General Information
Software Carpentry's mission is to help researchers become more productive by teaching them basic lab skills for computing like program design, version control, data management, and task automation. This two-day hands-on bootcamp will cover basic concepts and tools; participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.
Instructors: Cam Macdonell, Greg Wilson, Tim Cerino, Jason Williams
Helpers: Jared Camins-Esakov, Yu-Ching Shih, Shawn Averkamp, Paul Beaudoin, Mauricio Giraldo, Matt Miller, David Riordan
Who: The course is aimed at librarians and other information management professionals.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a few specific software packages installed (listed below).
Contact: Please mail gvwilson@software-carpentry.org for more information.
Location
This workshop will be held at the New York Public Library at 5th Ave and 42nd St, New York, NY 10018 (see this map). Since we are starting outside normal opening hours, please enter at the 42nd Street Entrance to the building (which is at 2 West 42nd Street) rather than trying to enter between the lions at the main entrance. If for any reason you're unable to get in, please call us at 203.521.1222.
We will be split between the Berger Forum and Trustees Rooms, both of which are on the second floor. There will be signs specifically for Software Carpentry attendees.
Schedule
Room 1
| Day 1 | |
| 09:00-12:00 | Task automation with the Unix shell |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00-16:00 | Introduction to Python |
| 16:00-16:30 | Wrapping up |
| Day 2 | |
| 09:00-12:00 | Processing data files |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00-15:00 | Putting it all together |
| 15:00-16:00 | Regular expressions |
| 16:00-16:30 | Wrapping up |
Room 2
| Day 1 | |
| 09:00-12:00 | Task automation with the Unix shell |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00-16:00 | Programming in Python |
| 16:00-16:30 | Wrapping up |
| Day 2 | |
| 09:00-11:00 | More on Python |
| 11:00-12:00 | Regular expressions |
| 12:00-13:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00-15:00 | Managing data with SQL |
| 15:00-16:00 | Putting it all together |
| 16:00-16:30 | Wrapping up |
There will be coffee breaks at 10:30 and 14:30 each day.
Setup
To participate in a Software Carpentry bootcamp, you will need working copies of the software described below. Please make sure to install everything (or at least to download the installers) before the start of your bootcamp.
Overview
Editor
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 Mac OS X 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.
The Bash Shell
Bash is a commonly-used shell. Using a shell gives you more power to do more tasks more quickly with your computer.
Python
Python is becoming very popular in scientific computing, and it's a great language for teaching general programming concepts due to its easy-to-read syntax. We teach with Python version 2.7, since it is still the most widely used. Installing all the scientific packages for Python individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend an all-in-one installer.
SQL
SQL is a specialized programming language used with databases. We use a simple database manager called SQLite, either directly or through a browser plugin.
Windows
Python
- Download and install Python version 2.7.8.
- Download and install Wing101 version 5.
- Use all of the defaults for installation
Git Bash
Download and run this installer. This will provide you with the Bash shell.
Software Carpentry Installer
This installer requires an active internet connection
After installing Python and Git Bash:
- Download the installer.
- If the file opens directly in the browser select File→Save Page As to download it to your computer.
- Double click on the file to run it.
Editor
nano is the editor installed by the Software Carpentry Installer,
it is a basic editor integrated into the lesson material.
Notepad++ is a popular free code editor for Windows. Be aware that you must add its installation directory to your system path in order to launch it from the command line: please ask your instructor to help you do this.
SQLite
Download the sqlite3 program and put it in the directory where you are running examples.
Mac OS X
Bash
The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is bash,
so no need to install anything. You access bash from
the Terminal (found
in /Applications/Utilities). You may want
to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
Editor
We recommend
Text Wrangler or
Sublime Text.
In a pinch, you can use nano,
which should be pre-installed.
Python
- Download and install Wing101 version 5.
- Use all of the defaults for installation
SQLite
sqlite3 comes pre-installed on Mac OS X.
Linux
Bash
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.
Editor
Kate is one option for Linux users.
In a pinch, you can use nano,
which should be pre-installed.
SQLite
sqlite3 comes pre-installed on Linux.
Python
We recommend Wing101 Wing101 version 5.