Havard School of Public Health
Mar 23-24, 2015
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Instructors: Ivan Gonzalez, Meeta Mistry
Helpers: Radhika Khetani, Mary Piper
General Information
Software Carpentry's mission is to help scientists and engineers get more research done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic lab skills for scientific computing. 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.
Who: The course is part of the NGS Data Analysis Course (Spring 2015).
Where: 260 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (Toteson Medical Education Center, room 130). Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct.
Contact: Please mail hbctraining@hsph.harvard.edu for more information.
Pre-workshop office hours: We are holding office hours to help those who find problems installing the required software on Friday, March 20th (room 438B in HSPH building 2, this is the preferred option) and from 8:30 am to 9 am on workshop's first day. You need to schedule your slot here.
Files: Please download these files for the corresponding lessons: shell.
Schedule
Day 1
| 09:00 | Automating tasks with the Unix shell |
| 10:30 | Coffee |
| 12:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00 | Version control with Git |
| 14:30 | Coffee |
| 16:00 | Wrap-up |
Day 2
| 09:00 | Introduction to R |
| 10:30 | Coffee |
| 12:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00 | Analyzing data with R |
| 14:30 | Coffee |
| 16:00 | Wrap-up |
Etherpad: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/2015-03-23-hsph.
We will use this Etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Syllabus
The Unix Shell
- Files and directories
- History and tab completion
- Pipes and redirection
- Looping over files
- Creating and running shell scripts
- Finding things
- Reference...
Version Control with Git
- Creating a repository
- Recording changes to files:
add,commit, ... - Viewing changes:
status,diff, ... - Ignoring files
- Working on the web:
clone,pull,push, ... - Resolving conflicts
- Open licenses
- Where to host work, and why
- Reference...
Programming in R
- Introduction to RStudio
- Basic R syntax
- Working with vectors and data frames
- Installing packages and using functions
- Calculating simple statistics and creating plots
- Reference...
Setup
In addition to what is described below, you will need to install other software for the reminder of the NGS Data Analysis course.
The Bash Shell
Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.
Windows
Install Git for Windows by download and running the installer. This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.
Software Carpentry Installer
This installer requires an active internet connection.
After Git Bash:
- Download the installer.
- Double click on the file to run it.
Information about the SWC Windows Installer, including the source code, can be found at https://github.com/swcarpentry/windows-installer.
Mac OS X
The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is bash, so no
need to install anything. You access bash from the Terminal
(found in
/Applications/Utilities). You may want to keep
Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
Linux
The default shell is usually bash, but if your
machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a
terminal and typing bash. There is no need to
install anything.
Git
Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on github.com.
Windows
Git should be installed on your computer as part of your Bash install (described above).
Mac OS X
For OS X 10.8 and higher, install Git for Mac
by downloading and running
the installer.
After installing Git, there will not be anything in your /Applications folder,
as Git is a command line program.
For older versions of OS X (10.5-10.7) use the
most recent available installer for your
OS available
here. Use the Leopard installer for 10.5 and the Snow
Leopard installer for 10.6-10.7.
Linux
If Git is not already available on your machine you can try to
install it via your distro's package manager. For Debian/Ubuntu run
sudo apt-get install git and for Fedora run
sudo yum install git.
R
R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio.
Windows
Install R by downloading and running this .exe file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
Mac OS X
Install R by downloading and running this .pkg file from CRAN. Also, please install the RStudio IDE.
Linux
You can download the binary files for your distribution
from CRAN. Or
you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu
run sudo apt-get install r-base and for Fedora run
sudo yum install R). Also, please install the
RStudio IDE.