CSE 110: Introduction to Programming

W01 Setup: Tools

Overview

Welcome to CSE 110!

This week you will set up your computer with the applications you will use this semester. You will need the following:

• Visual Studio Code - The application you'll use to write your programs.

• Python 3 - The application you'll use to run your programs.

• Microsoft Teams - The application you'll use to communicate with your teacher and the other students in the course.

Once you have those in place, you will be ready to write your first programs.

Preparation Material

One of the great things about programming in this day and age is that there is a wealth of information available on the internet. In fact, professional programmers spend a good part of their days looking for answers on the internet and then piecing them together and modifying them to fit the specific problem at hand.

This means that to be a successful programmer you need the following:

1. A strong understanding of the fundamentals of programming (what you'll study in this and subsequent courses).

2. The ability to learn and apply new things.

3. The ability to use information from various online sources.

This course and subsequent courses are designed to help you grow in all three of these areas.

In this course, you will be provided the information you will need to be successful, whereas in future courses you will develop your ability to find more and more of the information for yourself. But even in this course, you will start to learn to use material from many different sources on the internet. Some will be written by BYU-Idaho, but much of it will be curated for you from various resources available on the internet.

Install Python and Visual Studio Code

Please watch the video below.

As shown in this video, you will need to download and install both Python and Visual Studio Code on your computer. Also, please note that your Visual Studio Code preferences may be set up slightly differently than those in the video.

Direct link: Download and Install

As you follow the video above, you'll be downloading programs and an extension from:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/download

• https://www.python.org/downloads/

• https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python

Install and Sign in to your Team Collaboration Tool (Microsoft Teams)

This course will use Microsoft Teams as a collaboration tool to help you stay connected with your group members and ask and answer questions. This collaboration tool will be the primary means of communication with the teacher and the other students in the class. Professional software engineers use tools like this everyday to coordinate their work with others.

A Microsoft Teams organization has been setup for this course, and you have been added as a member. To access it, you need to install Microsoft Teams and sign in your your university account.

1. Follow these instructions to install Microsoft Teams: Introduction to Microsoft Teams
2. Sign into Microsoft Teams with your university account.
3. You should see a team name that matches the course name.

Getting Help / Troubleshooting

You need to complete the setup of all of these tools to be successful in this course.

If you have questions or run into any problems, please post a message to Microsoft Teams or send your instructor a message directly in Canvas.

Submission

There is no submission required for this setup activity. You just need to ensure that you have completed the steps above to be prepared for the upcoming activities.

Up Next

• W01 Setup: Team Sign-up

Other Links:

• Return to: Week Overview | Course Home