getting-started.md

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Getting started

Setting up your computer

To work on our projects from your computer, you will need to install & configure a few primary software services and tools. Some of these are graphical user interfaces (GUIs), while others are command line interaces (CLIs).

Git

Installation

To see if your computer already has the git CLI installed, open your Terminal application and run

git --version

If it returns git version 2.39.1 or higher, move to the next subsection.

Configuration

If you've never configured git on your computer before, run

git config --global user.name "First Last"
git config --global user.email [email protected]

making sure to (a) replace "First Last" with your first and last name within the quotes and (b) replace [email protected] with the email address you use to log in to GitHub.

JavaScript environment

We use Node Version Manager (NVM) to consistently manage Node.js and its versions in our projects that use JavaScript. To install, paste the following command into your Terminal application and run

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.5/install.sh | bash

This will install nvm as a CLI, which will allow you to install and use various releases of the Node.js software. The installation should also have updated some of your system files that enable use of the nvm CLI. To verify your installation, run

command -v nvm

which should output nvm if successful.

Node

Once NVM is installed, you're ready to setup your default version of Node.js for working on CiCL projects using JavaScript. Start by running

nvm install 18.18.2
nvm alias default 18.18.2

Then, to check the Node.js version, run

node -v

which should output v18.18.2.

Node Package Manager (NPM)

Check the installation of Node Package Manager (NPM) that comes with Node.js and make sure it has the correct version by running

npm -v

which should output v9.8.1 or higher.