This Lecture

Covers

Getting Started: the terminal, Python 3.13, VS Code, and forking, cloning, and syncing a GitHub repository.
Command Line Essentials: paths, navigation, file operations, redirection, pasted shell scripts, and shell shortcuts.
Python Basics: interactive and script mode, indentation, values and types, strings, lists, arithmetic, and comparisons.
Control Structures: if decisions, for loops over readings, and while loops with break and continue.
Debugging: reading a traceback and fixing IndentationError, NameError, TypeError, and ValueError.
Readings: McKinney, Python for Data Analysis (3rd ed.) 2.1 and 2.3; Shotts, The Linux Command Line, Chapters 1 to 4, 6, and 24; MIT Missing Semester, "Course Overview + The Shell" and "Version Control (Git)".

Enables

Fork and clone a GitHub repository in VS Code, edit a file, then commit and sync the change back to GitHub.
Set up a project folder from the terminal with mkdir, cp, and mv, and peek at a clinic CSV with head and cat.
Paste a shell script into a file with cat > file.sh and run it with bash file.sh.
Write and run a Python script that computes BMI, then read its traceback to fix a misspelled name or a text-to-number error.
Classify systolic readings against blood-pressure cutoffs with if/elif, and average them with a for loop. </aside>

Quick References

Command-line (Bash) cheat sheet
Python cheat sheet
futurecoder: Python basics with in-browser exercises and feedback
Official Python tutorial: tutorials straight from the source

<aside> 🌉

San Francisco is a walkable city and I will literally die on this hill

</aside>

Class Structure

This course started as a Python introduction plus as much of the practical stuff I learned on the job but never in a course as I could fit. Halfway through preparing the first version, I found The Missing Semester. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed the gap.

Lectures cover new material
Assignments after each lecture (caveats apply)
Lab for hands-on help completing the practical assignment
Assignments (60%) are always due the following week unless otherwise noted
Two exams (40%) or just one for 1-unit course at weeks 5 and 11

Getting Started: Your First Steps

What is the Command Line?

The command line (CLI) is a text-based interface.

Think of it as texting your computer instead of playing charades with icons.