V School Preparation
Before your first day at V School, we'd like you to sign up for a few services. Since these are internet accounts, it shouldn't matter which computer you do these from.
An important note: because you're likely in the midst of changing careers, if you don't have a professional-looking email yet, you need to go get one now.
Appropriate:
Inappropriate:
Also make sure to pick appropriate, professional usernames on any sites that require you to. If it's available, try to get the firstnamelastname format. (E.g. joejohnson)
Create an AppleID (or know your existing ID and password)
If you don't already have an Apple ID, you'll likely need one for the class. To create a new Apple ID:
- Head to the Apple ID creation page and fill everything out
- It will ask you for your credit card information. This will only be used if you purchase something from the Apple App Store and won't be used otherwise.
- If you're currently using the computer you'll be using for the class, make sure you're signed in to your Apple ID.
Sign up for Github account
- Sign up for an account on Github
Sign up for a CodeSandbox account through your Github account
- CodeSandbox is a great way to save and share collaborative code in an online editor. We'll use this often when teaching so you can follow along, provide answers to questions, practice solutions, and come back to code examples later.
Sign up for Edabit and CodeSignal accounts
- Edabit is a site for practicing coding challenges, and is a perfect place to start as a beginner.
- CodeSignal is an excellent site for practicing your coding challenges. Start with the Arcade intro levels and work your way up.
Sign up for a Trello Account
- Sign up for Trello here
- The instructors will walk you through some more steps in order to get Trello set up for receiving assignments
Sign up for LastPass (or a password manager of your choosing)
- Head to the LastPass home page, sign up, and follow the instructions.
- Make sure to install the browser extensions and allow it to save your passwords every time to sign in to an account
- We spend far too long waiting for students to remember passwords to their sites. Plus this is a lot more secure and allows you to choose different passwords for every account you have. (Letting LastPass choose the password for you is even better!)
If your current computer is the one you'll be using for the class:
Please complete the following items as well. If this computer isn't the one you'll be using in class (e.g. you're borrowing one from a friend or renting one from us), you can skip these steps for now. We'll walk through these items in class together.
Update to the newest version of MacOS
- You can find the newest version of MacOS in the Mac App Store. If you need help doing this step, please consult Google and/or reach out to a V School staff member.
Download Xcode
- We won't be using the Xcode editor, but along with Xcode comes a variety of useful tools (namely Git and Filemerge) that we'll be using throughout the course.
- Download here (click "View in Mac App Store").
Download the native Slack app
- The native app handles notifications much better than the web app.
- Download here (click "View in Mac App Store").
Download a text editor
- We recommend starting with VS Code.