The Work

Welcome

First of all, welcome! This prework is like your summer reading assignments from grade school, but way more fun and actually useful!

Before you Code

• Read How to Win The Iron Yard - a previous student wrote this and collected all kinds of useful tips.
• Teach a Robot - send the instructor

Install OSX Yosemite (if you haven’t already)

• You'll need to sign in to the Mac App Store with you Apple ID. If you don't have one, sign up here.
• Download the Yosemite upgrade from the Apple Store: download here.
• Double-click "Install OS X Yosemite” to begin installation.

WARNING: The OS X upgrade can take a bit of time to complete and will require a restart. Plan on doing this in the evening or over a lunch break.

TextEditor

As a developer, you spend most of your time reading, writing, and editing code, so a text editor is one of the most important tools to familiarize yourself with. We don't prescribe a particular editor but would recommend one of the following:

• Sublime Text 3 - Pro: fully featured, very snappy, excellent package ecosystem. Con: non-free but you can use it with a nag screen indefinitely.
• Atom - Pro: similar to Sublime, free. Con: can be sluggish, especially to open.
• Vim - Pro: powerful modal editor, works in a terminal, free, ubiquitous. Con: steeeeep learning curve.
• Emacs - Pro: Free, endlessly tweakable, works in a terminal, every possible feature. Cons: endlessly tweakable, every possibly feature, awkward keychords, steep learning curve, temptation to fiddle, etc.
• Ruby Mine - Pro: integrated Ruby-aware features (code completion, method lookups). Con: non-free, heavyweight.

I'm an Vim user myself, but won't be requiring it (it distracts too much from learning to code). I'll use it in lecture and explain how to do the same thing in your editors as needed.

If pressed, I would say to pick up SublimeText unless you're already committed to Emacs or Vim. Sure, it's $60 (or look at a nag screen forever) but you'll need a good text editor your whole career anyway and while popular technologies and languages change, editors don't.

Additionally, a lot of time in the first weeks of programming is spent fixing simple typing errors. It would not be ridiculous to suggest that many of you will spend 12-24 hours (or more) fixing typing errors during class. Moreover, typing code is quite different from typing in emails.

Whatever editor you choose, install it and spend some time getting comfortable with it (customizing and learning shortcuts, for instance). Mastering the tools you use every day will always pay dividends.

The Command Line

The command line will be our primary interface to the computer, and aside from your editor, the place you will spend the most time. If you've never opened up a terminal before, now is the time to start getting comfortable.

• (Optional) Install and use iTerm2 as your terminal
• Read http://skillcrush.com/2012/12/03/command-line-2/
• Go through the Treehouse course on Getting Started with the Console
• Go through the Treehouse course on Users and Permissions
• Go through the Treehouse course on Environment and Redirection
• Read and practice with A Command Line Primer for Beginners

Write some code

Now that you have a usable laptop, look through the books & courses section and do some activities. At a minimum, please go through the command line materials and write some ruby. Also sign up for a Github account and send me your username.

When you're done, send me an email and tell me what things were useful and what wasn't so we can keep this list up to date!