Backend Mod 0 Capstone Repository

This repository will walk you through the Mod 0 Capstone for the Backend program at Turing.

Each day has a folder containing a README.md file with instructions for the day, exercises, and questions. You must complete all the exercises and questions.

Index

Day 1 - Strings and Numbers
Day 2 - Arrays and Iteration
Day 3 - If Statements and Loops
Day 4 - Methods and Return Values
Day 5 - Hashes
Day 6 - Classes
Day 7 - Build A Thing

Environment

Environment Setup

These setup instructions assume that you have completed the setup for Module 0. If you haven't done that yet, see these instructions

Before we can do much programming, we need to make sure our machines are properly configured with a functional development environment. Let's walk through this process now to make sure we have what we need.

Here's what we're going to go over:

Setting up Terminal Access for Atom
Setting up GitHub SSH Keys
Installing Rbenv - a Ruby Version Manager. This allow us to install other versions as needed
Installing Ruby Versions using Rbenv
Forking and Cloning the Prework Repository

Setting Up Terminal Access for Atom

Install the shell commands for Atom. Open Atom, drop down the Atom menu in the top left corner of your screen, and click on Install Shell Commands. Atom should now be enabled from your command line.

To confirm that atom is working from your command line, open a terminal with Spotlight search (Command + Space), type "terminal" and hit enter. Type atom . in your terminal. If it is setup correctly, the atom editor will automatically open. If it does not open atom and an error occurs instead, try entering this in the command line: ln -s /Applications/Atom.app/Contents/Resources/app/atom.sh /usr/local/bin/atom and try the first command (atom .) again.

Atom also offers a number of different options and packages that you can customize to your liking. This series of videos will walk you through many of them if you'd like to dive deeper.

GitHub SSH Keys

SSH keys are a more secure and convenient way of authenticating than typing in our password every time we want to interact with Github.

Generate a new key by running (You should use the email associated with your GitHub account)

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "johndoe@example.com"

When you're prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter. This accepts the default file location. When asked to enter a password, hit enter.

Add this new key to your system by running:

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Copy the new key to your clipboard:

$ pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Let's tell GitHub about this key.

Go to https://github.com/settings/ssh
Click the green "New SSH key" button.
Click on the box that says "Key" and paste the key with Command + v. You do not need to enter a title.
Hit the green "Add SSH key" button.

To test that our key is configured, type the following into the command line:

$ ssh -T git@github.com

If you get this prompt:

=> The authenticity of host 'github.com (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)'... can\'t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Type 'yes'
If everything's working, you'll see the the following:

=> Hi YourUsername! You\'ve successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

rbenv

As the Ruby language has evolved over the years, new versions have been released containing new features and various upgrades. The first version, released in 1995, was 0.95, and as of this writing we're at 2.5.

To some extent programs written for one version of Ruby will run just fine on another version, but sometimes you'll encounter incompatibilities, such that a program needs to be run with a specific version of Ruby.

For this reason, we'd like to be able to install and manage multiple versions of Ruby on our system. This is precisely the job rbenv handles.

Installation

Similar to Homebrew, rbenv provides a script to get everything installed. Open a terminal with Spotlight search (Command + Space) and enter these commands:

brew update

brew install rbenv

rbenv init

The output from your terminal will be something similar to:

# Load rbenv automatically by appending
# the following to ~/.bash_profile:

eval "$(rbenv init -)"

This means that you will need to add the above line (beginning with eval) to the bottom of your bash profile.

Open a terminal with Spotlight search (Command + Space) and enter:

atom ~/.bash_profile

This will open up your bash_profile in Atom so you can edit it. Copy the line eval "$(rbenv init -)" and paste it at the END of your bash_profile. Save the file.

Check if you did this step correctly by switching back to your terminal and typing cat ~/.bash_profile. You should see eval "$(rbenv init -)" somewhere in the output of your terminal.

Close your terminal and reopen it. This is a very important step since the bash profile is loaded each time a new terminal window is opened.

Now check to make sure rbenv was installed properly. In your terminal, type:

rbenv versions

It should give you a version number rather than an error message.

More information about rbenv can be found here

Ruby

Now that we have rbenv installed, we're going to use it to install a specific version of Ruby: Ruby 2.4.1. This is the version we will use in the Backend Program.

If you need another version it'll be the same procedure, just replace "2.4.1" in the instructions with whichever version you want.

Install it with:

rbenv install 2.4.1

It should take a while to finish installing. Type

rbenv versions

and you should now see 2.4.1 listed.

Be careful, there are two different rbenv commands, version and versions. The first shows you your current version. The second shows all installed versions.

Switch to your newly installed version with

rbenv local 2.4.1

Now enter:

ruby -v

This shows us what version of Ruby we are running. You should see something like:

ruby 2.4.1p205 (2017-12-14 revision 61247) [x86_64-darwin17]

You can ignore everything after the "p". This output shows us we are running Ruby 2.4.1, which is what we want. If you got something different than 2.4.1, such as 2.5.0, go back through the Rbenv installation, make sure you have you successfully edited your bash_profile, restart your terminal, and try again.

Setting the Default Version

You can tell rbenv which Ruby version you want to use by default:

rbenv global 2.4.1

To reload your shell, do the following:

rbenv rehash

Terminal

We will be referencing many terminal commands throughout the prework. It is recommended that you practice using terminal commands before getting started. See the terminal.md lesson located in the day_0 directory.

Forking and Cloning the Module 0 Capstone Repository

Next, we are going to fork this repository. Forking is when you copy a Github repository to your Github account to make your own changes. Think of it like a fork in the road -- you're about to make changes that differ from the main path.

In this scenario, the Turing Github account owns the module_0_capstone repository. You do not have permission to change anything in this repository, so you need your own copy to work on. In order to fork the repository, follow these steps:

Make sure you are logged in to GitHub (if you are not logged in, log in and come back to this page)
Scroll to the top of this page
Click on Fork in the upper right corner of the screen this will take you to a new page. Now, you should be on your forked copy of this repository!

The next thing you need to do is clone your forked repository. Cloning is when you copy a remote Github repository to your local computer:

In YOUR module_0_capstone repository that your just forked, click on Clone or Download If you see Clone with HTTPS click on Use SSH

Click on the copy icon to copy the SSH link to your clipboard.
Open your terminal
Enter cd. This is a shortcut for cd ~, which is "change into the home directory"
Enter mkdir turing
Enter cd turing
Enter mkdir 1module
Enter cd 1module
Enter git clone <paste the copied ssh link>. You now have a copy of this repository on your local machine!
Enter ls. You should see a directory called module_0_capstone
Enter cd module_0_capstone
Enter git status.

If everything worked correctly, you should see

On branch master
nothing to commit, working tree clean

From here on out, all the work you do will be in this repository. Other text you read here might refer to this as the "prework repository" or "backend prework", and they all refer to your forked copy of this module_0_capstone repository.

Each day's README will walk you through the steps you need to take to save your work.

Extension (optional)

You're done! You've finished your Mod 0 Capstone! If you're interested in challenging yourself a bit more and getting a step up in your coding abilities before your first day, we recommend working on Credit Check.

Follow the same steps as you did in the 'Forking and Cloning the Prework Repository' section above to get this repo on your local computer.

rlew421 / module_0_capstone