Version control is the lab notebook of the digital world: it’s what professionals use to keep track of what they’ve done and to collaborate with other people. Every large software development project relies on it, and most programmers use it for their small jobs as well. And it isn’t just for software: books, papers, small data sets, and anything that changes over time or needs to be shared can and should be stored in a version control system.

Teams are not the only ones to benefit from version control: lone researchers can benefit immensely. Keeping a record of what was changed, when, and why is extremely useful for all researchers if they ever need to come back to the project later on (e.g., a year later, when memory has faded).

General Information

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: Online via Zoom

When: Friday,October 29. 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed under 'Bash shell', 'Git,' 'Text Editor' here).

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, additional accommodations) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Workshop organization note: A full Software Carpentry workshop typically consists of two days of in-person instruction, covering the Unix shell (half day), version control with Git (half day), and a full day of either Python or R. For our online workshops, we have separated this curriculum into a series of workshops. For a full workshop curriculum, please see our workshop calendar for other sessions on Python, R, or Shell.