Introduction

Welcome to the notes for the 2 day workshop on research software development aimed at PhD students at Cardiff University's School of Mathematics.

Motivation for this course is described at this page: Motivation.

In this course we will cover:

• Basic use of the command line (an efficient way of talking to your computer);
• Best practice in writing computer code (we will use Python but the ideas are applicable to any language);
• Best practice in writing LaTeX (including things like how to structure your source files)
• Using version control (how to use software to avoid things like "thesis_final_final_v2.tex)

Some specific things about how the course will work:

1. Please ensure you have installed all necessary software.
2. Before we start please join the Slack channel (and say hello).
3. There should be a few instructors roaming during the course. If at any point you would like their attention: call out their name.