You have two option for project workflow:

  • Use CoCalc to collaborate on your projects.
  • Use the Github interfaces, and Git version control.

We strongly recommend CoCalc, unless you have a good reason to use Github.

CoCalc

CoCalc is a web service for collaboration on mathematical and scientific computing.

It runs on cloud servers. Each project has its own virtual computer, that runs your code and stores your files.

Each group will get an invitation to collaborate on a CoCalc project, for their project, with us (your instructors) as collaborators.

We strongly recommend you use Google Chrome to access CoCalc, because it uses many advanced web features, that may not be supported correctly on some browsers.

If you have problems with the CoCalc service, please don’t be shy about contacting their Help service, via a support ticket. Look for the Help menu item at the top right of the CoCalc page.

Among other features you may find useful are:

  • Near real-time collaborative editing of Jupyter Notebooks. You can type into a notebook, and your collaborators can see what you are typing with only a few seconds lag;
  • Live chat with your collaborators, including your instructors (if they are available).
  • Unlimited undo and history for your edits.

Git and Github

Git and Github are powerful, advanced tools. If you go further into data science, you will certainly come across these, and using them will be part of your daily work. If we had time to teach these tools, we would, but we do not, so we suggest you only use this option if you already have some experience with these tools. In particular, please talk to us, you instructors, on how to use these tools with Notebooks.