What is version control? Why is it so important? Is it worth learning?
Many before us have answered these questions ad absurdum. Some of the best answers can be found at the following links:
- Git's "About Version Control"
- Michael Ernst's "Introduction to version control"
- Stack Overflow Answer to "Why should I use version control?"
If you've never used the command line, that's about to change. If you've used it, and don't feel comfortable with it, that's about to change.
Comfort in using the command line is the single-most useful skill you will ever develop as a programmer, no matter what you plan to program.
What is the command line interface (CLI)? : It is simply a text interface that you, the user, use to interact with a computer. In most cases, the CLI passes input (your text commands) to the computer's operating system, runs the commands, and outputs the response.
If you've never used the command line, let's change that: Play some Terminus.
Coming soon...
Coming soon...
As stated on vim.org,
Vim is a highly configurable text editor for efficiently creating and changing any kind of text. It is included as "vi" with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.
It is incredibly powerful as they suggest, but does come with a difficult learning curve. For those who care about incredible
text-editing efficiency (i.e., software developers), nothing beats a command-line text editor like vim.
Note: There are other command-line text editors, and plenty of opinions about which is best. You can enjoy reading about the pros and cons often discussed in the Editor war.
It's likely both vi and vim are installed on your operating system by
default. You can check using vi --version or vim --version, respectively.
The version should be 8.0+. The stable version as of this writing is 8.2, and
it is highly recommended that you upgrade to at least that version. The
insturctions for downloading and installing this text editor depends on your
operating system:
After installing and updating to the latest stable version of vim, you might
save this documentation page for reference.
A fun way to get started with vim is through the VIM Adventures. Otherwise, the best way to learn vim is to start using it.
Some great beginners' guides are scattered around the interwebs, including
While more advanced and complete references are
There is, admittedly, a huge learning curve for vim no matter how we slice it. As it is a command-line text editor, your go-to command should
be vim --help any time you need immediate guidance on syntax. Once you open
a file to edit with vim, you might find this cheat
sheet helpful.
Sublime is a fantastic text editor that uses plugins to provide syntax highlighting, file-type recognition, and various other useful features for developers.
Atom is another great text editor that is super customizable and is maintained by GitHub itself.
The Sokol-Hessner Lab uses a shared network drive (see following section) to store data. This drive is part of the University of Denver's secure campus network, and can be accessed off-campus by connecting virtually. For guidance to connect to the university's VPN, please visit this page listed by IT Services.
The University of Denver's shared network drive ("S Drive") contains a folder
for our lab, under AHSS Psychology/shlab. To learn more about accessing
this folder, please visit this page listed by IT Services.
IMPORTANT: All shared drive access requires username-password verification while you are connected to the campus network, whether by on-campus WiFi or by off-campus VPN connection.
mount -t smbfs //first.last@shares/Research/AHSS%20Psychology/shlab absolute/path/to/mount/folder`