how-tos

This repository contains code snippets, documentation, and details on how to perform tasks of interest. The audience of the different how-tos will vary, so feel free to use/tailor the instructions to your familiarity level.

How-to's available

A. ACCRE

Signing up for an ACCRE account
Jupyter Notebook 101: creating an instance on ACCRE, installing packages with pip, and cloning a repo
Creating a virtual environment
Creating a virtual environment from a yml file
Creating a shared virtual environment
(In progress) RStudio 101: creating an instance on ACCRE, installing packages, and cloning a repo

B. Jupyter notebooks

jupyter/connect-console.md: this how-to provides a method for avoiding inline, excess print or output statements for investigating variable values in classical Jupyter notebooks

C. General DSI

DSI-tasks/add-dsi-printer.md: this how-to describes how to add the DSI Vanderbilt-networked printer for Windows and OSX computers.

Installation

To work with this repository and the collections of how-tos herein, you will most likely want to install at least Git to clone and work with the code in this repository. Further instructions will be found in the readme.md file of the subdirectory for your selected how-to.

Git

Git provides version control and facilitates collaboration between project contributors. You will use git for one or more of these purposes:

Version control for your own projects
Version control for projects with multiple members
Cloning/forking repositories (obtaining a copy of the repository)
Syncing the local and remote repository

You can install Git from here for your operating system. For Mac OSX, you may need to install the XCode Commnand Line tools. This can be done by typing git --version in your terminal. If git is not installed, this should prompt you to install XCode tools.

Repo download (Optional)

Note: You may or may not need to clone this repository to follow your desired how-to. Additionally, it may be difficult to read the readme file without the rendering that GitHub provides. A good workflow is to have the how-to readme via GitHub open in one tab, and follow the installation instructions (e.g., cloning this repository) indicated by this how-to readme in other browser tabs or programs if necessary.

To locally clone this repo:

Scroll up and click the bright green Clone or download button.
Click the clipboard next to the URL of the repository. This will copy the repository link.
Determine the directory where you want your repository to be located (e.g., Documents\projects)
Right click and click the option Git Bash here.
The Git Bash screen appears and should look like a terminal. Type pwd and press enter. Ensure that the directory stated is where you want your project. Otherwise, close Git Bash and return to step 3.
Type 'git clone ' and then right-click so that a drop down menu appears. Click paste. Your total command should be something like:

git clone https://github.com/vanderbilt-data-science/how-tos

Press enter.

Congratulations, you've cloned the repository. This is your first step. Now, open your file explorer and navigate to your new folder. After you click on it, find the subdirectory for your how-to. Follow the steps in the readme file to perform your desired task.

D. Use Branching from within RStudio (mostly)

Branching allows you to add features to a code base in a safe manner when you are collaborating with other data scientists and coders. GitHub Flow is an approach to branching where you branch and merge frequently (see https://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/choose-right-git-branching-strategy-121518344 an overview, and http://scottchacon.com/2011/08/31/github-flow.html for a full description).

See github-tasks/github-flow-r for a tutorial on how to use GitHub Flow for branching

Make sure you've got git installed and working with RStudio (see https://happygitwithr.com/).