CS170: Programming for the World Around Us - Setting up Your Computing Environment (50 Points)

Assignment Goals

The goals of this assignment are:

To set up the computing tools needed for CS170

The Assignment

What to Do

GitHub

Go to GitHub and create an account. GitHub provides a platform for saving your work to the cloud, which provides a backup as well as a mechanism to share your work with your peers and instructors. We will integrate this into the micro:bit and Visual Studio Code environments that we’ll use throughout the semester.

Visual Studio Code

First, download and install Visual Studio Code for your operating system.

Extensions

Within Visual Studio Code, click the Extensions icon or press Control-Shift-X to bring up the set of extensions. There are a few that you’ll want to install:

Python
Live Share
Archiver

Trying out Visual Studio Code

Create a folder on your desktop by right clicking on your desktop and choosing New Folder. You can give it any name you like.

Create a new project in Visual Studio Code by going to File - Open Folder. Pick the folder you just created.

Go to File - New Text File and paste the following:

print("Hello World!")

Go to File - Save or hit Control-S to save the file into your folder. Call it main.py. Click the run button at the top right (it looks like a triangle pointing to the right) of your screen to run it.

At the bottom left of your screen, click Live Share. Select Allow Access if you’re asked to let this through your computer’s firewall, so that it can be accessed from the Internet. This puts a link on your clipboard. E-mail this link to your partner and join each other’s project. Paste this link into a web browser to load it. Click to Continue in Visual Studio Code when you paste the link into the browser, and have your partner click to Accept Read-Write so that you can access and edit the project. Add a print statement of your own to your partner’s project and run it.

Trying out GitHub

Click the Source Control icon on the left toolbar or press Control-Shift-G to open the source control tab. Click Publish to GitHub and log into your GitHub account to save the project there. If prompted, enter a message (for example “My first commit upload”) and click Commit and, if prompted, Push, to upload your work to the cloud.

Go to https://www.github.com on your web browser, and click on the repository that was just created when you saved your project. Click the Settings menu item in the browser, followed by Collaborators on the left. Click the Add People button in the middle and add me (BillJr99) as a collaborator.

Creating a README

Go to the File - New Text File menu, and type your name and a README describing what you’ve done. Save this file as README.

Exporting a Project

Go to the View - Command Palette menu. Type Archive Folder into the menu at the top to export your project. It will be saved as a zip file just outside of the folder you created (i.e., on your desktop).

What to Turn In

When you’re done, write a README for your project, and save all your files, before exporting your project to ZIP. In your README, answer any bolded questions presented on this page.

Submission

In your submission, please include answers to any questions asked on the assignment page, as well as the questions listed below, in your README file. If you wrote code as part of this assignment, please describe your design, approach, and implementation in a separate document prepared using a word processor or typesetting program such as LaTeX. This document should include specific instructions on how to build and run your code, and a description of each code module or function that you created suitable for re-use by a colleague. In your README, please include answers to the following questions:

Describe what you did, how you did it, what challenges you encountered, and how you solved them.
Please answer any questions found throughout the narrative of this assignment.
If collaboration with a buddy was permitted, did you work with a buddy on this assignment? If so, who? If not, do you certify that this submission represents your own original work?
Please identify any and all portions of your submission that were not originally written by you (for example, code originally written by your buddy, or anything taken or adapted from a non-classroom resource). It is always OK to use your textbook and instructor notes; however, you are certifying that any portions not designated as coming from an outside person or source are your own original work.
Approximately how many hours it took you to finish this assignment (I will not judge you for this at all...I am simply using it to gauge if the assignments are too easy or hard)?
Your overall impression of the assignment. Did you love it, hate it, or were you neutral? One word answers are fine, but if you have any suggestions for the future let me know.
Using the grading specifications on this page, discuss briefly the grade you would give yourself and why. Discuss each item in the grading specification.

Any other concerns that you have. For instance, if you have a bug that you were unable to solve but you made progress, write that here. The more you articulate the problem the more partial credit you will receive (it is fine to leave this blank).

Assignment Rubric

Description Pre-Emerging (< 50%) Beginning (50%) Progressing (85%) Proficient (100%)

Writeup and Submission (100%) An incomplete submission is provided, or the README file submitted is blank The program is submitted, but not according to the directions in one or more ways (for example, because it is lacking a readme writeup or missing answers to written questions) The program is submitted according to the directions with a minor omission or correction needed, including a readme writeup describing the solution and answering nearly all questions posed in the instructions The program is submitted according to the directions, including a readme writeup describing the solution and answering all questions posed in the instructions

Please refer to the Style Guide for code quality examples and guidelines.