Using the terminal and an editor

Format

A group-work week. The single hour is not a lecture: students work through this topic on their own, and the session is there for you to answer questions and signpost. Nothing below is material to deliver.

Open by asking what people got stuck on. If the room is silent, the minutes are the way in: ask a group what went into their questions arising box this week. That is what the box is for, and it makes the point that the minutes are useful to them rather than only to the mark.

What students work through on their own

• Using a terminal and an editor, and the corresponding chapter of Python for Mathematics.

Each member reports on it at the group meeting, which is the first standing item on every agenda.

Questions that come up

"It works in the notebook but not from the terminal." Almost always the working directory, or a name defined in an earlier cell that is not in the file. Ask them to run it from a fresh terminal in the directory holding the file.

"Which editor should I use?" Any. VS Code is the default recommendation because it is what most of them will meet later, but the notes do not depend on it.

"Why bother leaving notebooks at all?" Because the submission is a .py library with a .py test file. This is the week that transition starts, and it is worth saying so.

Signposts

• The Assessment page, for how this topic shows up in the marking criteria.
• The example projects, which are worked submissions at the level of a good project.
• The Meeting minutes: Week 5 page for this week's form.

Reference

The material below is not delivered in class. It is kept here as a worked treatment of the topic to draw on when answering questions.

First meeting

After this meeting students should:

• Understand the basic idea of using a cli and an editor

Explain that there is no specific class problem today as there is no new python concept to cover.

• Open a terminal an macOS and explain the use of Anaconda Prompt on Windows.
• Navigate to cfm describing the difference in commands when appropriate on Windows.
• Open a Python REPL.

Now open VScode (show how to install), create a file and put it in the folder. Run it.

After class communication

Send the following email after class::

Hi all,

A recording of today's class is available at <>.

In this class I went over using the command line and an editor.

In preparation for your tutorial tomorrow please work through the tenth
chapter of the Python for mathematics book:
https://vknight.org/pfm/building-tools/04-editor-and-cli/introduction/main.html

A reminder that tomorrow is your last tutorial.

Please get in touch if I can assist with anything,
Vince