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Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica

December 3-4, 2016

9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Instructors: Matthew Collins, Alex Thompson, Deborah Paul

Helpers: Rogelio Gonzalez Quiros

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.

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.

This Software Carpentry course is being offered in conjunction with the upcoming Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) 2016 Conference, December 5 - 9, 2016. We anticipate that many who take this workshop will also be attending TDWG 2016. iDigBio is sponsoring this workshop, and parts of the workshop will focus on using biological and paleontological specimen data.

**UPDATE: only 7 spots left.** Last chance to sign up.

Cost: Students $50.00, non-students $100.00
Go to the registration for TDWG 2016 to pay for and reserve your spot. Students enrolled in a degree program can request a discount code from the TDWG Treasurer by emailing an image of your student ID or a note from your advisor to "treasurer@tdwg.org". The discount code will secure reduced rates for both the conference registration and the course fee.

Spots are limited to 25 participants, so don't wait, register now.

Hotel Information: the following hotels are very close to CTEC (the workshop location). Please reserve at one of these, if possible, to make getting to the workshop easier. Participants going to TDWG can then check out on Sunday Dec 4th and will be transported to check-in to La Fortuna hotels on Sunday 5 PM in time for TDWG Sunday evening reception.

  • Hotel Arbol Dorado - very convenient because it is very close (15 minutes by foot; walking distance) from campus and CTEC workshop location. This is a small hotel - will fill fast. Great to room share! Localizado estratégicamente en el Instituto Agropecuario Costarricense, ubicado en Santa Clara, Florencia, San Carlos, a solo 20 minutos de Ciudad Quesada
  • Rancho Ecuestre Hermanos López - about 4 Km from campus and CTEC.

Where: Technology Transfer Center (CTEC) San Carlos/Santa Clara ITCR campus, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating sytem (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct.

Course Overview: Sign up for a two-day Software Carpentry Workshop covering core skills needed to be productive in a small research team. Short tutorials alternate with practical exercises, and all instruction is done via live coding. All workshop participants are required to abide by our code of conduct to ensure that all attendees to have an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. The specific programming languages and tools taught will be customized based on your preferences. Core topics include:

  • automating tasks using the Unix shell
  • structured programming in R, and
  • version control using Git or Mercurial
We plan to offer an section focused on using the big data available from the iDigBio project. This may include programming with web APIs, distributed computation with Apache Spark, or similar topics.

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organisers have checked that:

  • The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
  • Accessible restrooms are available.

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please mail dpaul@fsu.edu for more information.

Schedule

Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Day 1

09:00 Automating tasks with the Unix shell
10:30 Coffee
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis
14:30 Coffee
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 2

09:00 Version control with Git
10:30 Coffee
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Managing data with SQL
14:30 Coffee
16:00 Wrap-up

Etherpad: http://pad.software-carpentry.org/2016-12-03-tdwg-costa-rica.
We will use this Etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.

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

  • Working with vectors and data frames
  • Reading and plotting data
  • Creating and using functions
  • Loops and conditionals
  • Using R from the command line
  • 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...

Managing Data with SQL

  • Reading and sorting data
  • Filtering with where
  • Calculating new values on the fly
  • Handling missing values
  • Combining values using aggregation
  • Combining information from multiple tables using join
  • Creating, modifying, and deleting data
  • Programming with databases
  • 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

Video Tutorial
  1. Download the Git for Windows installer.
  2. 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). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. 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).

You will need an account at github.com for parts of the Git lesson. Basic GitHub accounts are free. We encourage you to create a GitHub account if you don't have one already. Please consider what personal information you'd like to reveal. For example, you may want to review these instructions for keeping your email address private provided at GitHub.

Windows

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

Mac OS X

Video Tutorial

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

Video Tutorial

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. See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open nano. 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

Video Tutorial

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

Mac OS X

Video Tutorial

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.

SQLite

SQL is a specialized programming language used with databases. We use a simple database manager called SQLite in our lessons.

Windows

The Software Carpentry Windows Installer installs SQLite for Windows. If you used the installer to configure nano, you don't need to run it again.

Mac OS X

SQLite comes pre-installed on Mac OS X.

Linux

SQLite comes pre-installed on Linux.

If you installed Anaconda, it also has a copy of SQLite without support to readline. Instructors will provide a workaround for it if needed.

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