EGR 103/How things work

At the moment, this page is more of a stream-of-consciousness attempt to clarify what's going on in EGR 103.

What Software Is Important? Where Is Software Installed?

Python

Python is the primary programming language used for this class. The specific version of Python we will be using is the open source Anaconda Distribution. This distribution comes with an Integrated Design Environment (IDE) called Spyder. You will run Spyder, which will bring up a window that includes space for your code editor, your command window, and a variable/file explorer. There are two main ways to work with Acadonda and Spyder:

• If you brought a computer to campus, you can Download and install Anaconda on your own computer. We will be using the Python 3.6 version so be sure to install that one.
• Regardless of whether you brought a computer to campus, you can use a "Container" - a web-based version of a computer environment - as long as you can connect to the Duke Network through a browser. There are several public computers on campus that will make this possible. To do this, you will go to the VM Manage page and then log in to your Spyder environment. You will not need to install anything for this to work -- but you will need to pay attention to the notes below about files and file location to be able to access your work from this container.

LaTeX

LaTeX is a document preparation system and it will be used for creating lab reports. There are two main ways to use LaTeX

• Duke's Linux system has LaTeX installed, along with a text editor (emacs), a graphics conversion program (dvipdf), and a PDF viewer (evince). If you use these, you will not need to install anything! You will just need to use either MobaXterm or XQuartz to access the Duke Linux system and then go from there. This will be the method you learn during the first lab.
• If you have your own computer, you can install a version of LaTeX appropriate for your OS; you will need to mount your CIFS drive (more information below) so your computer can access your files.

Where Are My Files?

The answer to this question is a little complicated. Here goes:

• When you accepted Duke, OIT created a 5 Gb drive for you on their Common Internet File System, or CIFS. Files in your CIFS space can be accessed in several different ways. They are immediately accessible if you log in to Duke's linux system, login.oit.duke.edu. They can also be accessed on other file systems if you mount the drive - there are instructions for how to do this on Windows and Max OS X; if you are a Linux user, you probably already know how to do this...but if not, let Dr. G. know.
• Part of what you will learn in the course is how to use git - from Wikipedia, the defition of git is: "a version control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people." Basically, it allows you to have files in several different locations - even hosted by several different users - and will work to synchronize the different versions when changes are detected. Among other things, it is important to note that the container mentioned above does not have access to your CIFS folder. Given that, we will use git to make sure there is an up-to-date, centralized version of all your files that can be pulled either to your CIFS space or to your container space. It is critically important that you remember to update your git repository whenever you finish working on code.