Hello everyone!

Welcome to ITP 404 - Advanced Front-End Web Development! In order for us to hit the ground running on the first day of class, I want to take care of most administrative items and environment setup beforehand.

The class page is https://dtang.dev/teaching/2021/itp404. Blackboard will only be used for grades and to access the Zoom meeting links for each class session (BlackBoard -> Navigate to this course -> Tools -> USC Zoom Pro Meeting). We will use the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Classes Slack workspace to communicate throughout the class. You will receive an invitation in your email to join the workspace. Once you sign up, you should be automatically added to the fall21-itp-404-31835 channel.

Git and GitHub

In this course, we will be using Git, GitHub, and GitHub Classroom for assignments, the midterm, the final project, and class demos. If you aren't familiar with Git and GitHub, please check out the following courses on LinkedIn Learning, which you should have access to as a USC student:

• Git Essential Training: The Basics
• Learning Git and GitHub

What I'd like you to be comfortable with before class is the following:

• Creating a Git repository (git init)
• Staging files (git add)
• Making commits (git commit -m 'Some message')
• Pushing your local repository to a remote repository on GitHub (git push)
• .gitignore files

Learning Git does involve working with the command line (CLI). I have created a Command Line Basics resource that may help if you need to review the common commands.

If you have any questions along the way, don't hesitate to reach out! Learning Git can feel pretty intimidating.

I will be using Git from the command line (CLI), but some students in the past have found the GitHub GUI to be helpful. This might be helpful for those who are less comfortable with the command line.

Development Environment Setup

1. I will be using Visual Studio Code (often referred to as VS Code) as my editor, but you are welcome to use whatever editor / IDE that you like.
2. Set up Prettier.
3. Install a recent version of Node.js. Even if you have Node.js installed, you might find this resource helpful.
4. If you don't already have a GitHub account, please create one.
5. If you don't already have Git installed, please install it.
6. Read about submitting work through GitHub Classroom.

Please reach out to me on Slack if you have any questions. See everyone on Tuesday, August 24th at 5pm!