Version control & Collaborative development for Research Software

Course description

This workshop introduces version control using Git and provides a practical approach to applying collaborative development to research software projects. It provides beginners and basic users of Git with a comprehensive overview of Git commands and how to use them to manage collaborative software projects. 

Beginners may experience a fast pace in how the content is delivered and will be required to keep up with it to reach a desired intermediate level. Participants with some experience with Git may find the first part of the course somewhat slow, but it may serve as a reminder of the basics of Git. 

By the end of the course, all participants will be able to use Git for version control and apply good practices for collaborative software development, including the use of code repositories such as GitHub and GitLab.

The workshops are Monday 7 October until Thursday 10 October 2024 at 12:30 - 17:15 hrs each day; Location: TU Delft Library - Orange room.

Target Audience

This workshop is open to TU Delft PhD candidates, researchers and research support staff with no or little knowledge of versioning control with Git and collaborative software development, but who expect to develop and maintain source code of research software.

Pre-requisites:

Participants should be able to use the command-line interface (CLI) with the Unix Shell, or be willing to learn using it at a basic level before the workshop. Specifically, participants should be able: 

1. to navigate and visualise content of directories (folders)
2. to create, copy, move and delete files and directories
3. to edit files with terminal-based text editors, such as nano, vim, emacs, etc.
4. to visualise hidden files and directories
5. to redirect and append a command output to a file

Participants with no experience with CLI are required to complete one of the following crash courses before the workshop:

• Shell novice lessons 1 - 3 from the Software Carpentry:
  • https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/01-intro.html 
  • https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/02-filedir.html 
  • https://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/03-create.html 
• Linux shell crash course by Aalto University:
  • Linux Shell Crash Course (text) 
  • Linux Shell Crash Course (video)

Participants with no experience with terminal-based text editors, please make sure you can use nano, which is the editor instructors will use.

TU Delft PhD candidates obtain 1.5 GS credits (Research Skills) when attending all days of the workshop and actively participating in the exercises and discussions. The workshop is jointly developed and delivered by the TU Delft Digital Competence Centre (DCC), Watermotion | Waterbeweging and TU Delft Data Stewards.