CS 312 - Software Development

Getting Started

In CS312 you will use a variety of software tools and online services. Please get ready for the semester by making sure you have installed the following tools and created the following free accounts. Read the instructions completely before starting, paying close attention to the version numbers when specified. You may have some of these tools already installed, or if you are working on basin (basin.cs.midldebury.edu), some tools may already have been installed for you. The latter is noted in the instructions. Don't just copy-and-paste, some commands require modifications (e.g. with your e-mail address).

A note to Windows users, most of the core tools we are using should be available for Windows. Some of the ancillary tools, e.g. NVM, may not. Our various workflows and exercises will have been developed and tested on OSX and Linux, but not on windows. If you would like to work in a more tested environment, you could make use of VirtualBox or the Windows Subsystem for Linux to get a Linux distribution up and running on your machine.

A note to OSX users, many of these tools can be installed via Homebrew. If you are a current Homebrew user, keep an eye out for that install option. If you are not yet a Homebrew user, I recommend it. Homebrew is "package manager" for OSX that makes it easy to install (and remove) software (especially open-source CLI SW).

Browser

All of the modern browsers should work fine, however to ensure a common, multi-platform, environment we will standardize on Firefox. You are welcome to use any browser you are comfortable with, but this is the one that I will use to check your work.

I also encourage you to install the Rect Development Tools extension in Firefox, which will allow you to inspect your React component hierarchies (including state and props).

Editor

You will need a good programmers editor. There are a number of them out there, but I am going to suggest VSCode, which has a good combination of features, a lot of useful plugins, and runs on practically everything. We will also be using its Live Share capabilities, so even if you decide you like some other editor better for doing assignments, please make sure you have VSCode installed.

Git and GitHub

  1. Make sure you have git installed. You likely already have Git installed (e.g. as part of OSX developer tools). If you are working on basin.cs.middlebury.edu, git is also already installed.

    As an aside, OSX users should install XCode Command Line tools (which includes compilers and other relevant tools like Git) if you don't already have XCode installed. You will likely need those tools in another class. This guide includes step-by-step instructions.

  2. If you haven't already, configure git with your name and e-mail

    git config --global user.name "your name"
git config --global user.email "your email address"
git config --global color.ui auto

    For example:

    git config --global user.name "Christopher Andrews"
git config --global user.email "candrews@middlebury.edu"

  3. Create a free GitHub account if you don't have on already. We will be using GitHub extensively, including for assignment submission. Make sure that whatever e-mail address you used above is associated with your GitHub account so that project contributions are associated with your account. Note that you can have multiple e-mail addresses associated with your account, e.g. you can add and should add your Middlebury e-mail address to an existing GitHub account. Once you have your account, submit your GitHub username to the instructor(s) via this online form.

  4. GitHub offers both SSH and HTTPS-based interfaces to your repository. GitHub recommends the HTTPS-based interface, but you can use either. SSH requires you to set up a public-key. See GitHub's help page for more information on these two options.

  5. Request an education discount for your individual GitHub account (not as an organization). Doing so gives you free private repositories and will unlock free accounts at other services that integrate with GitHub!

Node.js

Node.js is a stand-alone JavaScript engine that can be used to execute JavaScript outside the browser, either locally on your computer or on a "backend" server (i.e. "full-stack" JavaScript). We will be using the "long term support" (LTS) version which is 12.18.3. It will be important that you get this version and not use an older version you may happen to have (which may be missing features) or the latest, cutting edge version (which may have changed some features, and has certainly added some).

There are many ways to install Node, but the best way is to use a tool that will allow you to easily migrate between versions. The recommended approach is to use nvm on OSX or Linux and chocolatey on Windows. https://nodejs.dev/ has the short version of the commands you need to run to install node (and the OSX and Linux instructions also include the commands for installing nvm at the same time.)

The default setup for NVM is to invoke the nvm.sh setup script whenever a new shell starts. Doing so takes a few seconds, and depending on how often you create a new shell that delay might be annoying. If you find yourself bothered by the delay, and are comfortable at the command line, you can modify your .bashrc (or .bash_profile) with the following (test the default setup first -- I no longer need the following):

Replace the following lines in your .bashrc (and any others, e.g. bash completion, added by NVM installation):

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

with:

# lazy loading nvm
setup_nvm() {
  unset -f node
  unset -f npm
  unset -f nvm
  unset -f npx
  export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
  [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
}

node() {
  setup_nvm
  node "$@"
}

npm() {
  setup_nvm
  npm "$@"
}

npx() {
  setup_nvm
  npx "$@"
}

nvm() {
  setup_nvm
  nvm "$@"
}

This lazily loads NVM whenever you use nvm, or the Node.js tools (node, npm and npx). Note that you may need to modify the above if you install NVM via Homebrew or another package manager. Specifically if you use Homebrew, you will likely need to replace [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" with source "$(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh".

Users on all platform should configure npm, the Node.js package manager, distributed as part of the Node.js installation (replacing email address with your e-mail address, etc.) with their information:

npm set init.author.email "email address"
npm set init.author.name "name"
npm set init.license "Apache-2.0"

SQLite

  1. Install the sqlite-tools for your platform to obtain the sqlite3 CLI for SQLite. Note that this tool is typically already installed as part of OSX and is already on basin. This tool is not needed until the second half of the class, the absence of SQLite will not prevent you from completing the programming assignments in the first half of the course.

MongoDB

  1. Install MongoDB. MongoDB is already installed on basin. This tool is not needed until the second half of the class, the absence of MongoDB will not prevent you from completing the programming assignments in the first half of the course.

Heroku

Throughout the semester we will deploy our applications to Heroku, a "platform-as-a-service" (PaaS).

  1. Create a free Heroku account
  2. Install the Heroku CLI tools. The Heroku tools (heroku) are already installed on basin.

Travis CI

We will use Travis CI for continuous integration (CI). https://travis-ci.com (the commercial side for private repositories) offers free accounts to students enrolled in GitHub's education program.

  1. After you have successfully enrolled in GitHub's education program, sign-up for a free account at Travis CI.