As we've seen, AI is powered by code--Python code, run in Jupyter Notebooks in our case.
As a best practice, code should reside in a version control system. These systems allow collaboration, enforce good coding practices and foster collaboration and sharing. The most widely used version control system today is git. Git is free and open source.
In addition to using git, it is possible to use one of many online git hosting sites. For Practicum AI we use GitHub.com. There are other options, but GitHub is one of the leading online hosting companies and offers educational discounts for students and faculty.
Furthermore, GitHub offers a product called Codespaces that allows you to run Jupyter Notebooks on their servers in your browser. The interface for Codespaces is a little different than using JupyterLab on a computer or cluster. Codespaces will use an in-browser version of VSCode, allowing you to run Jupyter Notebooks on GitHub's servers. This version of the git training has screenshots to help you become familiar with the Codespaces interface, as opposed to the JupyterLab interface featured in other versions of the Practicum AI git Training. This is intended for users who will be using Codespaces.
This training will start with some slides which are part of the source repository at: https://ufresearchcomputing.github.io/git-training/#/
After going over the slides, we'll come back to this.
Setup on Codespaces is super simple. The instructions in the other versions of this training cover how to setup ssh keys to connect to your GitHub account from a remote computer. But because Codespaces uses GitHub's servers, there are no keys to setup!
To launch a Codespace:
- Click the green
<> Codebutton - Select the
Codespacestab - Click Create
Codespace on mainbutton
That will take a minute or two as a Codespace server is configured and started up for you.
To view a version of this training that covers setting up ssh keys, check out the git setup page of this repository.
The image below shows what your Codespace should look like and points out a few important portions of the Codespace.
Close the terminal panel by clicking the X in the top right of the panel--we won't be using it in this exercise.
2. Continue on the 02_exercise.ipynb notebook
Click on 02_exercise.ipynb to open the exercise and follow along the instructions in there.
There are many great git and github.com tutorials out there. Here are some that I particularly like and have relied on in developing this training.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Software Carpentry Version Control with Git | This is a popular module in the Software Carpentry curriculum. It is designed to be a 3-hour instructor-lead training module but can be worked through on your own as well. |
| GitHub Learning Lab | This site has many lessons that use github.com and automation to walk users through hands-on exercises to learn aspects of git and github.com using the tools. |
| try.github.io | More github tutorials |
| education.github.com | Information on educational discounts--plans change regularly, check for current benefits. |
| classroom.github.com | For instructors wanting to use git in the classroom. Manages individual and group assignments, great tool for the classroom! Also, stickers! |
| pages.github.com | Information on using github.com to host web sites. |
| bitbucket.org | Github is not the only host of git repositories. Bitbucket is another popular host. |
| gitlab.com | Another git hosting option |