John David N. Dionisio, PhD

CMSI 1998

Special Studies: Software Carpentry*

Fall 2025

Note

This page is maintained as an archival record of the course shown above, and as such, some links on this page may no longer be valid nor accessible. They are kept here as a record of the resources that were available at the time of the course offering.

^* The phrase “software carpentry” was coined by Greg Wilson and Brent Gorda in 1998: https://software-carpentry.org/

• Brightspace: Where you can access private content and check your grades
• We will use GitHub Classroom to manage and submit assignments
• Every now and then we may use Socrative to ask or answer questions as a class—my Socrative room is DONDILMU

Episodes (a.k.a. Assignments)

• Episode 0905 Filescape navigator  extended to 0909 
• Episode 0919 Curator personalis
• Episode 1003 Edits, envs, and execution
  • Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on vi to supplement what we do in class
  • And this is a quick and convenient crib sheet for vi: note, in typical non-programming command-line use, the first six bullets see the heaviest use
  • Finally, here is XKCD’s humorous and informative take on all of this
• Episode 1017 To [Git]hub and to hold
  • If you haven’t yet, we will set up SSH authentication on your GitHub account during class
  • We will add Markdown to your documentation repertoire: here is GitHub’s official Markdown guide
• Episode 1031 The non-accidental programmer
• Episode 1114 Dynamic duo
• Episode 1202 Welcome to the multiverse Setup practice Setup final
  • Learn Git Branching provides a gamified, visual approach to learning git—it can get pretty advanced so pace yourself according to what has been covered in class so far
• Episode 1212 Use the force you should not
  • Dangit, Git!?! is a curated (one might say “cherry-picked” 😉) collection of git “vignettes” for specific sticky git situations. The commands include some that we covered in class, some that are variants of what we have covered, and some that are completely new. Consider this a parting gift as you proceed to apply your newfound software carpentry skills to future work. Enjoy! (h/t Frank Manno)

Course Content

Use class time to learn these concepts and commands, practice them, then walk through realistic software development scenarios where they come in handy, in infinitely diverse combinations.

Use online resources to learn more about them in detail and go into greater depth.

• Getting your bearings and getting around
  • cd
  • pwd
  • ., .., /, and ~
  • ls [-a, -l, -F]
  • “Hidden” files (. again, with a twist)
  • more/less
• Making changes
  • mkdir [-p]
  • rmdir
  • mv
  • rm
  • cat
  • touch
  • vi and nano/pico
  • Lore: vi vs. emacs
• Command line QoL
  • History (and searching it)
  • Autocomplete
  • Environment variables (especially PATH)
  • Command editing
  • echo
  • alias
• Markdown (especially GitHub’s flavor)
• git started
  • init
  • clone
  • add
  • remove
  • commit
  • push
  • pull
• git moving
  • log
  • diff
• git in control
  • restore
  • commit --amend
  • stash
  • reset
  • checkout
• git your own adventure
  • branch
  • switch
  • merge
• git fixed
  • restore
  • revert
  • cherry-pick
• ⚠️ git dangerous (but sometimes necessary)
  • ☢️ reset
  • ☢️ rebase [--interactive]
  • ☣️ push --force