Global Power of Botany
This is an overview of the programming resources you will need for the Spring 2019 Global Power of Botany course at Barnard College.
Getting Started with...
R
Install R from https://cran.r-project.org/ Download RStudio Desktrop (FREE) from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download
There are an overwhelming number of online tutorials for people new to the R programming language. We encourage you to keep it simple and go or for the basics.
Alternatively, type these commands in your RStudio Console:
install.packages(“swirl”)
library(swirl)
and explore these tutorials within RStudio.
For a great introduction to RStudio, go here. Whether or not you’re new to RStudio, this guide gives you a great sense of the shortcuts and options you have to help with your assignments.
GitHub
Creating readable code and collaborating with others is an important programming skill. GitHub is a popular, free, open-source site that helps you keep track of different versions of files and share them with collaborators (fellow students, colleagues, etc). You will need to create a GitHub account for this class as most coding assignments will be submitted in this way.
Go to https://github.com/ to create a new account Select the “Unlimited republic repositories for free” option and skip any surveys Complete the GitHub start guide; you should receive a prompt for this after signing up, but in case you don’t see it, go here: https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/ Finally, for a relatively quick and comprehensive tutorial about git (the program GitHub is based on), go to https://try.github.io/, click on “Git-It”, and follow the instructions. If you scroll all the way up on the “Git-It” page, you’ll see that it is itself a file in a git repository stored on GitHub! Hopefully this will give you an idea of what GitHub is used for/capable of doing.
If you’re interested in learning more about git and GitHub, read the online Git Pro book or go to https://guides.github.com/.
Markdown
Markdown is a simple text editor language that we will use to format our code-based assignments for this class. For a simple introduction, follow this tutorial: https://www.markdowntutorial.com/
For a good side-by-side (markdown → code) view, practice here: https://stackedit.io/app#
If any of this is confusing/intimidating, that’s completely normal. Programming has a steep learning curve. Be patient with yourself, stick with it, and know that we’re available and happy to help.