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. The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop. 

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing"

Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.).  

Syllabus

The Unix Shell

• Files and Directories
• History and Tab Completion
• Pipes and Redirection
• Looping Over Files
• Creating and Running Shell Scripts
• Finding Things

Programming in Python

• Using Libraries
• Working with Arrays
• Reading and Plotting Data
• Creating and Using Functions
• Loops and Conditionals
• Defensive Programming
• Using Python from the Command Line

Version Control with Git

• Creating a Repository
• Recording Changes to Files: add, commit...
• Viewing Changes: status, diff, ...
• Ignoring Files
• Working on the Web: clone, pull, push, ...
• Resolving Conflicts
• Open Licenses
• Where to Host Work and Why