Objectives

This assignment will test that you have git working properly as well as give me some information about your experience level to calibrate the course.

Setting up your repository

If you haven’t already, you need to create an account on GitHub. You should also enable academic access if you haven’t already by “Requesting a discount” for your “Individual Account”.

Next, you’ll create a repository for your assignment. To do so, please follow this link

If you aren’t comfortable yet with git, please try out some tutorials online! try.github.io is great, as is http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/, https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials, and https://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial.

We will use git the entire semester, and this assignment is meant to get you started. Feel free to use a GUI client for git, but you may also want to consider learning how to use it from a terminal. Since I will managing the repositories, you likely will only need to learn four commands:

git clone
git add
git commit
git push

Survey

Create a plain-text ASCII file, named survey.txt, and place it in the top-level directory of your git-repository. Commit and push this file after filling out the following survey, with answers formatted roughly like this:

CSC544 Data Visualization
Assignment 0
YOUR_NAME_HERE

1. I loved visualizations and want to know more about how to make them great!

2. Cool ways to make pictures with computers!  

3. C++ (10), Python (5), LOLCODE (2)

...

You are not required to answer any of the questions if you don’t want to, but non-submission does not count! Please write “no answer” for any question that you choose not to answer.

I am going to use the answers to calibrate the remainder of the course, so this is an opportunity for you to influence where the course goes. There are no right or wrong answers in this questionnaire. All I ask is you answer honestly, without trying to figure out what I might want to read. The more you write, the more I’ll know about your expectations and what you are interested in.

Survey Questions

  1. Why are you taking this course?

  2. What do you think you’ll learn in this course?

  3. List the three programming languages you are most comfortable with and how many years of experience you have with each

  4. How experienced are you with Javascript and the web stack?

  5. Have you ever created a data visualization? What was it?

  6. During the course of your studies or professional life, what’s the largest dataset you’ve had to deal with? What tools did you use?

  7. What’s the best visualization you’ve ever seen? Why do you like it?

  8. What’s the worst visualization you’ve ever seen? Why do you not like it?

  9. Tell me about something cool you learned recently. If you were meeting with a friend, what would you chat about? Possible answers: books, movies, TV shows, blogs, podcasts, etc. It does not have to be about visualization.

Submission

You should use git to submit all source code files. The expectation is that your code will be graded by cloning your repo and then executing it within a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.)

All that is necessary for this assignment is a single file within the repository, survey.txt

Grading

Deductions

None. There are no wrong answers. This assignment is not eligible to submit late.

Point Breakdown

This is all or nothing, either you submit it on time or you do not.

Cumulative Relationship to Final Grade

Worth 1% of your final grade