Software Carpentry: University of Wollongong

General Information

Software Carpentry's mission is to help scientists and engineers get more research done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic lab skills for scientific computing. 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 goal of the workshop is for participants to acquire skills to:

enable automation of repetitive tasks
work with structured data
improve the reproducibility of your research
version control code for reuse and collaboration.

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

Who: 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. Priority will be given to UOW-affiliated students and staff (please use your UOW email when you register). If you do have experience in the topics in the syllabus and want to help, send us an email.

We find that workshops go a lot better if people come in groups, e.g., 4-5 people from one lab, half a dozen from another department or institute, etc., so that they are less inhibited about asking questions, and can support each other afterwards. So while individual sign-ups are welcome, we encourage you to sign-up with a friend.

Where: 43-G01, Science Teaching Facility, UOW, Wollongong, NSW. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps. Here is a PDF of the UOW campus map, that also includes other information about the campus.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct. There is a small fee for attending, this goes directly to the Software Carpentry organisation to support their instructor training, curriculum development, and so on (the instructors and helpers are volunteers). Please bring a hard copy of your registration confirmation to the workshop.

Contact: Please mail bmarwick@uow.edu.au for more information.

Schedule

Tues 1 Dec: Day 1

09:30	Automating tasks with the Unix shell
10:30	Coffee break
12:00	Lunch break
13:00	Version control with Git
14:30	Coffee break
16:00	Wrap-up

Wed 2 Dec: Day 2

09:30	Getting started with R
10:30	Coffee break
12:00	Lunch break
13:00	Reproducible scientific analysis with R
14:30	Coffee break
16:00	Wrap-up

Syllabus

The Unix Shell

Files and directories
History and tab completion
Pipes and redirection
Looping over files
Creating and running shell scripts
Finding things
Reference...

R for reproducible scientific analysis

Project management with RStudio
Data frames and reading in data
Creating functions
Creating publication quality graphics
Split-apply-combine
Dataframe manipulation with dplyr
Reference...

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
Reference...

Setup

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.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.

Windows

Download the Git for Windows installer.
Run the installer and follow the steps bellow:
1. Click on "Next".
2. Click on "Next".
3. Click on "Next".
4. Click on "Next".
5. Click on "Next".
6. Select "Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt" and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
7. Click on "Next". Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected.
8. Select "Use Windows' default console window" and click on "Next".
9. Click on "Next".
10. Click on "Finish".

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

Mac OS X

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.

Linux

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

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).

Windows

Git should be installed on your computer as part of your Bash install (described above).

Mac OS X

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.

Linux

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 yum install git.

Text 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.

Windows

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. 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.

Others editors that you can use are Notepad++ or Sublime Text. Be aware that you must add its installation directory to your system path. Please ask your instructor to help you do this.

Mac OS X

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are Text Wrangler or Sublime Text.

Linux

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are Gedit, Kate or Sublime Text.

R

R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio.

Windows

Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.

Mac OS X

Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.

Linux

You can download the binary files for your distribution from CRAN. Or you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install r-base and for Fedora run sudo yum install R). Also, please install the RStudio IDE.