1. Sign into Canvas to confirm that you're registered for the course and can see your grades. It's imperative that you check your grades on a regular basis.
2. Sign into Piazza. Post class questions to Piazza. Regarding a question of a personal nature, e-mail us on Canvas.
3. Get a CS account. Your projects must run in the CS Labs. If you need any technical support, you can contact UT ITS Help Desk.
4. Get a GitLab account as soon as possible. It can take several days to get this, and you must have it before you can turn in any projects.
5. Get python3.6.8 installed on your machine. Installation instructions for Python for
   
   • Windows
   • MAC OSX
   
   
   
   To ensure that Python is properly installed, run the following command.
   

   $ python --version 
   
   Python 3.6.8
   

   Note: This version of Python is highly recommended because it's consistent with the available version on UTCS machines. If you have a more recent version, you can keep it but you may face discrepancy in the output of some of the files introduced in-class.
   
   
6. Get coverage installed on your machine.
   

   $ pip install coverage
   

   Note: The $ marks the end of the prompt and it's not part of the command.
   To ensure that coverage is properly installed, run the following command.

   $ coverage --version

   
   You may receive an output similar to the following.

   Coverage.py, version 4.5.2 with C extension
   Documentation at https://coverage.readthedocs.io

7. Get git installed on your machine. The CS network has:

   $ git --version
   git version 2.34.1

   
   Note: After installing git on your machine, you need to configure it. To configure git, go to the "git" tab on the class webpage and run the commands under "Configuring git".


8. Get autopep8 and pylint installed on your machine.

   $ pip install autopep8
   $ pip install pylint



9. You need a text editor. I use NotePad++.


10. You need a command-line shell. I use bash that comes with git on Windows (or you can use "terminal" that comes with Mac OSX).
    If you have already installed git, bash can be found in git > bin > bash. The path to "bash" on my machine is as follows: "C:\Program Files\Git\bin"


11. Windows users: When you install a new application on a Windows machine, you need to let Windows know the location of this application.
    For example, after installing Python, you need to identify the path to the executable of Python. Let's assume it's "C:\Users\Fares\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\" (yours might be different.)
    
    To inform Windows about the location of Python executable, "edit" the variable named "path" which is under the "System variables" category in "system environment variables" to create a "new" path to Python.
    
    You may also need to do the same to let Windows know about the location of other Python tools and libraries.
    For example on my personal laptop (yours might differ),
    • the location of Pydoc is as follows:
      "C:\Users\Fares\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Lib"
    • the location for coverage, Pylint, pip, pep8 is as follows.
      "C:\Users\Fares\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Scripts"
    • the location for git is as follows.
      C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
    • and the location for bash that comes with git is as follows:
      C:\Program Files\Git\bin

To access UTCS machines using using a MAC OSX machine or a Windows machine, first you need to obtain a UTCS account and get your UTCS credentials.

Then, if you need to access UTCS machines from off campus, you must first establish a secure connection to the campus network using the virtual private network (VPN).

• MAC OSX: You need SSH and SFTP to communicate to a UTCS machine (using your UTCS credentials). The details of the installation/use process can be found here.

• Windows: You need SSH and SFTP to communicate to a UTCS machine (using your UTCS credentials). The details of the installation/use process can be found here.

At this point, you are ready to type in Unix/Linux commands.

If you decided to work on your Windows machine, just make sure after you finish your project that it can be built on a UTCS machine, which will be used for grading.

After installing MinGW, check in c:\MinGW if you have the "msys" folder.
If it is not there, open MinGW Installation Manager. From the menu to the left, select "Basic Setup". From the menu to the right, select "msys-base-bin". Finally, Select "Installation" then press "Update Catalogue"
Then find msysbase (or something along that line) and check it, go back to installation and apply changes.

Note that after installation you will have a folder on C:, namely c:\MinGW. You need to enter the system variable PATH and add the path to the bin folder. On my machine, the path is "C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin"

• To access and update system environment variables:
• Go to: Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced System settings > Advanced > Environment variables
• System variables > Path > Edit > New > Paste the Path-to-the-bin-folder. On my machine the path is "C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin".