8/3/23, 15:54 Course environment

Course environment

Contents
Interactive code cells
JupyterLab
Cloud computing environments
Using your own computer
Git and GitHub
Voting and polling
Slack
Page summary

During this course, we will use different tools and applications for programming and
communications:

1. Interactive code cells for live coding in the browser

2. JupyterLab for the actual programming
3. Cloud computing environments Binder or CSC Notebooks
4. Git and GitHub for version control and documentation
5. Voting / polling for interactive questions during the lectures
6. Slack for communicating among UH students

Interactive code cells

All pages with code cells can be turned into an interactive mode where you can run the code
directly in the browser!

 Note

The interactive code cells are a new feature from the 2020 course materials that is still
a bit experimental! Remember, you can always open up the materials in Binder or CSC
Notebooks and run the code in there.

JupyterLab
JupyerLab is an open-source web-based user interface for doing data science. The JupyterLab
interface consists of different components such as a file browser, terminal, image viewer,
console, text editor, etc.

Jupyter Notebooks (filename extension .ipynb) are documents inside the JupyterLab
environment which contain computer code, and rich text elements (figures, links, etc.). Jupyter
Notebooks are perfect for documenting a data science workflow in an interactive format.

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We use JupyterLab/Jupyter Notebooks as the default programming environment during

this course. All of the course materials are available in a JupyterLab setting via cloud computing
environments (Binder or CSC Notebooks).

Basic view of JupyterLab

A Jupyter Notebook open in JupyterLab

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Cloud computing environments

We will use cloud-based computing environments (Binder or CSC Notebooks) to access
interactive online version of the lessons and to work on the weekly exercises. You can use the
cloud computing environments with any computer as long as it has a reasonably fast internet
connection and a web browser (just don’t use Internet Explorer).

Please note that the cloud computing environments are temporary. Always remember to push
your changes to GitHub (and / or download a local copy).

Different options for making the lesson interactive

Each interactive lesson and exercise will have a launch button for both Binder and CSC
Notebook. The CSC notebooks environment is only accessible to students from Finnish
universities and research institutes.

Binder
Binder (https://mybinder.org/) runs Jupyter Notebooks in your web browser in a customized
environment. The original files (notebooks) are hosted on GitHub. Binder does not require the
user to log in, you can just click on the link in the lesson / exercise and start working.

Binder takes a few moments to load

Once the instance is ready, you can navigate to the lesson folders and start working with
existing notebooks or create a new one.

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Remember to save your work! The Binder instance is temporary, and all your files will be
lost after the session.

CSC Notebooks
Notebooks by CSC (https://notebooks.csc.fi) is a computing environment hosted by the Finnish
IT Center for Science (CSC). Similar to Binder, the CSC Notebooks platform is used for running
Jupyter Notebooks in a customized environment. CSC Notebooks is available only for students
who are affiliated with Finnish universities and research institutes (via the Haka user
authentication).

 Note

When using the CSC Notebooks for the first time, you need to join the group
created for this course:

1. Log in at https://notebooks.csc.fi/
2. Select Haka for the authentication provider
3. Enter your Finnish university login credentials
4. Click on the Join workspace button on the top left
5. Join the Geo-Python workspace using the join code geo-0bkh83f3

After joining the group, you should be able to view the course environments called
Geo-Python 2022 at the top of the Application list.

Launching the instance takes a few moments.

 Note

After launching the Geo-Python 2022 workspace the first time:

1. Double-click on the my-work folder in the file navigator on the left side of the
Jupyter Lab window
2. Click on the Git icon on the left side
3. Click on the Clone a Repository button
4. Enter the address https://github.com/geo-python/notebooks.git and click Clone
5. You can now access the lesson notebooks in the my-work/notebooks folder

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 Note

Repeat these steps every time when starting to work on a programming task
using the CSC Notebooks:

1. Log in at https://notebooks.csc.fi/
2. Select Haka for the authentication provider
3. Enter your Finnish university login credentials
4. Click on the Start session button for the Geo-Python 2022 workspace
5. Navigate to the my-work/notebooks directory, click on the Git icon on the left and
click the Pull latest changes

Remember to save your work!

Using your own computer

We recommend everyone to use the available cloud computing environments during this
course. In case you want to work on your own computer, you need to install Python (via
Miniconda).

Git and GitHub

One of the core goals of this course (besides learning programming) is to learn how to use
version control with Git and storing your codes (privately) on GitHub.

Git is a version control software (developed by a rather famous Finn named Linus Torvalds - he
also created Linux!) that is used to track and store changes in your files (often source code for
programs) without losing the history of past changes. Files in Git are stored in a repository,
which you can simply think of as a directory containing files (or other directories) related to a
single ‘project’. Git is widely used by professionals to keep track of what they’ve done and to
collaborate with other people.

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GitHub is a web based Git repository hosting service and social network. It is the largest online
storage space of collaborative works that exists in the world. It is a place where you can share
your code openly to the entire world or alternatively only to your collaborators working on the
same project. GitHub provides a nice web-interface to your files that is easy to use. It is a nice
way for exploring the codes and documentation or e.g., teaching materials such as those in our
course.

Both Git and GitHub provide many more features than the ones mentioned here, but for now we
are happy to understand the basic idea of what they are.

Voting and polling

During the lectures we will ask you questions by using an easy-to-use polling-system and show
you the results in real-time. You can access the polling system of our course from https://geo-
python.github.io/poll

 Note

The polling system is active only during the lessons. If you access the website outside
the lecture times, you will most probably see only a white page without any content.

Slack
During the course we will use actively an application called Slack for discussion and questions
about the lessons and exercises. All enrolled students have received an invite link to the geo-
python2021 workspace at the start of the course. Read more about Slack.

Page summary
Now you should have (at least) a basic idea about the different components of our course
environment and what they mean. You don’t need to understand everything fully at this point as
they will become clearer when we start using the course environment.

© Copyright 2016-2022, D. Whipp, H. Tenkanen, V. Heikinheimo, H. Aagesen, and C. Fink, Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki.
Last updated on Oct 20, 2022.

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