Jump to: CLI Tutorials, HTML/CSS Tutorials, & Additional Tutorials.

As advertised, this course is about using R Markdown and GitHub. I appreciate that some of you may not want to spend time learning new skills that you don’t think you need. Originally I considered everything on this page to be optional, however I changed my mind. As I thought more about the structure of the course, I concluded that I would be doing you all a disservice if I made tools like HTML and CSS optional. So, I am now flip flopping and making Command Line Interface and HTML/CSS mandatory, self-paced tutorials. These tools are integral to our learning objectives and your work going forward, so please try to forget what I said before.

In future lessons you will incorporate these skills, so it is time to start practicing. If there is demand for it, I am happy to turn any of these topics into separate lessons–just let me know. For now, work through the tutorials available on the Web. These are the same tutorials I used, but if you find other ones that you, like please tell me or post to Slack and I will update this page.

For your benefit, I also include a section on Additional Tutorials that cover these toipcs in more depth plus tutorials on other concepts that you may find useful.

Command Line Interface 🔗︎

A command line interface (CLI) is a text-based user interface (UI) used to view and manage computer files. This is in contrast to the graphical user interface (GUI) that most of us are accustomed to. All of the pointing, clicking, copying, and pasting you do with your computer’s GUI can be done in the command line. Think of the CLI as the layer just below the GUI.

Knowing how to use the CLI is important for a lot of reasons (#1 does not apply to this course). For one, using git and GitHub from the command line is far easier and more useful than the git GUI programs.

Ok, here is where I get into trouble. Since I do not have a Windows machine and have so little experience with Windows CLI (DOS), I cannot vet any tutorial the same way I would for other operating systems. I would really appreciate Windows users recommending some good tutorials. I think the syntax and commands are the same or very similar.

A word of caution. The command rm stands for remove. It is similar to moving a file to the trash except rm deletes the file. It is extremely difficult (impossible?) to undo rm so it is good practice to always include the -i flag when running this command. Adding this flag forces, you to confirm that you want to delete the file. If I want to remove a file called file.txt I would run the command like this: rm -i file.txt. Once I hit enter, I receive a message that asks remove file.txt?. I must answer y or n or the command will not run.

Many important files and directories on your computer are write protected, meaning that you must enter a password to delete them. Most of the time you will be ok. But running rm incorrectly, without the -i flag, in the wrong place on your computer, can be catastrophic. Please be careful with your new powers.

CLI Tutorials 🔗︎

HTML & CSS 🔗︎

Websites are built on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For any site, HTML defines the content and structure; CSS provides the style and layout; JavaScript programs the behavior.

If you want to develop your HTML/CSS skills, you can start by working through these tutorials. At this point in the course, learning HTML/CSS is optional self-paced, but if there is enough demand for more, I can incorporate these languages more formerly. If you have no interest in learning these languages that is totally fine. You do not need them to use R Markdown. I do believe however that a little knowledge of HTML and CSS goes a long way. As I mentioned, if you go far enough with R Markdown, you will encounter its limitations. I encourage you check out some of these tutorials.

Interneting is Hard, But is doesn’t have to be 🔗︎

I have explored a lot of tutorials for HTML/CSS and this is my favorite. There are 14 lessons that cover many important skills. The tutorials are simple and straightforward. It is also a good opportunity to start working in your fancy new source code editor and testing out the dev tool functions of your browser.

A friendly web development tutorial for complete beginners.

Additional Tutorials 🔗︎

In this section, I will add other tutorials you can explore on your own time for honing your skills. If you find a tutorial you like, please let me know and I will add it to the list.

General 🔗︎

Learn X in Y minutes. Where X is a programming language. Beginner tutorials available English, Spanish, and many other languages. Use the Highlight your language: button in the upper right corner to filter. I highlight some in the sections below.

80+ Ways to Learn to Code for Free in 2020.

HTML/CSS 🔗︎

From Learn X in Y minutes, CSS in English (EN) (no ES CSS available), HTML in English (EN), and HTML in Espanol (ES).

Both w3schools and MDN web docs have extensive information about CSS and HTML. These are amazing resources.

Markdown 🔗︎

From Learn X in Y minutes, Markdown in English (EN) and Markdown en Espanol (ES). Here is a

R 🔗︎

From Learn X in Y minutes, R in English (EN) and R en Espanol (ES).

MathJax 🔗︎

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