Module 5: Install Your Tools

Proficiency in web and software development requires more than just a grasp of programming languages. Developers must also be familiar with a wide assortment of tools and technologies that allow software to be created and shared with users around the world.

This course will expose you to a wide range of tools—such as Heroku, Git, and Slack—some (or all) of which you may be unfamiliar with. Although they may be overwhelming at first, these tools will soon become as familiar to you as a scalpel is to a surgeon.

The purpose of this section is to acquaint you with each of these tools and walk you through the process of setting up the necessary accounts and installing the required programs on your machine. Having your coding environment set up on Day 1 will ease your transition into the class and allow you to start coding faster.

Ready for Action!

Below is a list of the tools you should install before your first class to ensure you're ready to dive in on Day 1.

Google Chrome
Slack
Sublime Text Editor

You should also create accounts for the following:

GitHub
Slack
Heroku
Netlify
Codenvy

If you encounter any issues during setup, don't worry. Your instructional team will help you troubleshoot any errors and answer your questions, and the lessons will reiterate many of these steps once you get started.

An Overview of the Tools

Before installing the tools, take a moment to famliarize yourself with each of them to better understand the role they will play in the course.

Google Chrome

This is the web browser we'll be using to quickly determine whether our code is working. Google Chrome has a number of tools that make it an ideal coding platform, so if you are currently using a different browser, we encourage you to switch to Chrome.

Slack

Slack is an online communication tool that is a mix of forum, instant messenger, and email all rolled into one. It's used by countless organizations worldwide, and you'll be using it every single day for the next several months. We will use Slack to send code snippets during class, relay important announcements, and facilitate group exercises.

Though there is a Slack web client, for this course you should have the program installed on your machine. You will receive the link to your class-specific channel during orientation.

Sublime Text

Sublime is a free, powerful text editor that runs on the Mac, Linux, and Windows operating systems. At a basic level, programming is about creating text in files with various extensions. When we create a block of HTML like the one below, what we've really done is created a block of text. There are some funny symbols in there, but at the most basic level it's just text.

VSCode_11

For a simple text editor, this is where the comprehension stops: a block of HTML remains a block of text. But for more powerful text editors like Sublime, these blocks of text are immediately recognized as code (as long as we give the file the right file extension). Sublime provides a more visually intuitive understanding of the code through indicative coloring, smart tabs, and autocomplete functionality. As a result, creating HTML like the block above is a more natural process and can be debugged more quickly.

Git and GitHub

Code files are largely collaborative, as developers are constantly building on each other's work. Git is a version-control system that offers a specialized set of strategies for orchestrating this collaboration, and GitHub stores these collaborative actions online. You can think of GitHub as a sort of Dropbox for coders. It offers a central place for developers to upload their code, view revision history, and make changes to a master set of files.

In this course you'll manage your code using the git command line program, and push it to GitHub to share with the world.

Heroku and Netlify

In this course, you will be creating websites on your computer and then you will use Heroku and Netlify to put those websites online for the world to see.

Hosting platforms like Heroku take your web application, activate its code, and then assign it a URL so that every internet user can access it. You'll learn a lot about how this works towards the tail end of the course.

Ready, Set, Go!

Now it's time to collect your tools and begin. Setup guides for both Mac and Windows users are provided in the links below. Follow the instructions closely and do your best with the information you have. (Yes, we know there is a lot to install.)

One bit of advice: Throughout the course, you will frequently need to install and use unfamiliar tools. Resist the urge to stop and ask, "Am I doing this right?" Instead, trust your instincts and take your best stab at it. If you get lost, we'll get you the help you need right away. You can do this!