In-class exercise

In-class exercise#

During this class, you will do the following things:

  • Get an account on our Zulip instance

  • Install VS Code

  • Navigate your computer using a shell

  • Install git and create a GitHub account

  • Clone your first git repository

  • Install Python via Miniforge and create the course environment

  • Run your first Python script

Getting an account on our Zulip instance#

All relevant communication will happen on our Zulip instance. In order to be able to participate, do the following:

  • If you have not signed up for the bonn-econ-teaching Zulip workspace yet, use this link to do so. You will then automatically be subscribed to the EPP - 2024 stream.

  • If you are already signed up from a previous course, please subscribe to the EPP - 2024 stream.

Installing VS Code#

The most important programme when coding is a versatile editor. Visual Studio Code, or more commonly VS Code, is cross-platform, stable, free, fast, and very extensible.

Follow the instructions on the VS Code website to install it on your machine. When installing on Windows, be sure to tick all boxes so you register it as the default editor.

Feel free to install the same packages as Hans-Martin did, which you can find here.

Shell navigation#

Please go through the materials for your operating system and watch the screencast to get a basic understanding of navigation in shells:

Installing git#

Go to git-scm.com and follow the instructions

Creating a GitHub account#

Got to github.com and create an account. Good GitHub names are short and easy to memorize (i.e. no cryptic number combinations).

Clone your first git repository#

To have your first git repository created by GitHub classroom, click on this link and follow the instructions.

Then carefully follow these instructions to clone the repository to your computer.

Installing Python and creating the course environment#

Please follow the exact steps for your operating system:

Please follow the entire set of instructions, up to the creation of the course environment.

Running your first Python script#

Please go through these materials and watch the screencast on running a Python script from the shell.

Then run check_environment.py inside the repository you cloned.