¶ Exercise: Course Tools
¶ Activity
Welcome to CS110: Introduction to programming with Python.
This course requires a lot of little tools (all free), which can be initially overwhelming to set up. For this exercise, we are going to walk through the basics of the tools we will be using, what you need to do to use them, and how to access them.
Until you complete this exercise, we cannot grade any of your submissions.
Make sure you are reading and following each step carefully.
¶ Part 1. Brightspace
Go to: https://brightspace.binghamton.edu/
- Login
- Click on the Course Materials link
- Find the Lecture section of this course (A0).
- The lab section is not used for this course. You can hide it if you wish.
¶ Part 2. Discord
We will use Discord as a way to communicate. Sign up/in and verify that you have setup Discord by either changing your server nickname or sending me a DM with your real name in the message.
¶ Part 3. Github
If you do not have a Github account, or would not like to use your personal github account for this course, please go to Github and create a new account
Next, you can create your portfolio that will hold all your code and assignments for the semester.
- Select your name from the list
- If your name is not on the list:
- click
skip this step - send me a message via Discord and I can manually associate your account
- click
- If your name is not on the list:
Once you have created your repository, copy and save the url for the next step.
¶ Part 4. Setup Your Environment
If you would prefer not to work on your own computer, you can use the computer in the G& lab in the Engineering building, which can also be accessed remotely with X2Go
Most students prefer to work on thier own computer, which thanks to VSCode and Github integration, is pretty straightforward to setup, but you will need to install several tools.
¶ 1. Install Git
¶ 2. Install Python
- Install Python 3.10
- Windows
- Make sure you click Add to Path
ignore the version, yours should be 3.10
- Make sure you click Add to Path
- Mac
- Windows
¶ 2. Install VSCode
¶ Program in Python
Setup your programming environment:
- Clone your Repository
- Go to your resopitory on Github and click the following button:
- This should take you back to VSCode
- You will go back and forth a couple times authorizing various connections. Just agree to everything.
- When asked where to clone your repo, put it somehwre you can find it, like your
Desktop. You can clone it anywhere on your computer, just make sure you know where it is and can find it again.
- Go to your resopitory on Github and click the following button:
¶ Part 6: Verify
However you decide to work on your code, to verify that everything is working properly:
- Go to the following directory path in your portfolio:
ch00>exercises - Create a new file called:
hello.py - Open the file, and write the following:
print("Hello World")- make sure you copy the above line exactly
- in Python:
- 'a' is not equal to 'A'
- Whitespasce (space, tab, return) matters in python. You must be consistent.
- Save, then close the file
- Make a commit (with any message you want), then push your changes back to the main repository.
Important!
YOU MUST COMMIT AND PUSH ANY CHANGES you make back to your Github RepositoryIf you make changes and do not commit and push those changes, THEY COULD BE LOST
If you get an error, please contact me or a TA and send us the error message via DM on Discord.