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Getting started with coding

In this session we will make sure you are set up and familiar with the tools we will code with all year, including GitHub repositories, forums, and pages.

We will also introduce and practice the idea of markup language by writing and structuring some simple content in Markdown.

Learning objectives

Students will be able to:

  • create a repository in GitHub

  • create and edit text files in a repository

  • upload and manage image files in a repository

  • read and write simple content markup in Markdown syntax

  • publish a webpage using GitHub Pages

Pre-sessional activities

INFO

Pre-sessional activities could be readings, videos, or interactive tutorials. Please complete as many as you can before the session, at least the ones listed as Priority.

TIP

For academic articles, closely read the abstract, introduction, and conclusion first, to try to understand the main argument of the authors. Summarize it in your own words to test if you know the main thing or things they are trying to say. Then go deeper into the methodology, findings, and discussion sections if you can, to understand how and why the authors reached their conclusions.

Priority

James H. Coombs, Allen H. Renear, and Steven J. DeRose. ‘Markup Systems and the Future of Scholarly Text Processing’. Communications of the ACM 30, no. 11 (November 1987): 933–47. https://doi.org/10.1145/32206.32209.

What is Markdown?, CodeAcademy, YouTube, 22 May 2019, 7m 29s.

Garen Torikian, “Markdown Tutorial.”

Italo Santos, João Felipe Pimentel, Igor Wiese, Igor Steinmacher, Anita Sarma, and Marco A. Gerosa. ‘Designing for Cognitive Diversity: Improving the GitHub Experience for Newcomers’. In 2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS), 1–12, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEIS58686.2023.00007.

Brian O’Grady, Nakita Mc Cool, What is GitHub, Code Institute, YouTube, 28 Sept 2022, 7m 20s.

GitHub Docs, “Basic formatting syntax.”

Liliana Bounegru. ‘The Platformisation of Software Development: Connective Coding and Platform Vernaculars on GitHub’. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 20 November 2023, 13548565231205867. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231205867.

Content CC BY 4.0 | Code AGPL 3.0