Resources for Mod 1 BEE

We (mod 2) want to help you (mod 1) as much as possible in these first six weeks of Turing.

It's a bit of a fire-hose for you so far, but we're pulling together resources in a few ways:

Pairing so we can pair with you on whatever you're working on
Tips and tricks that served us well

Pairing

With a few exceptions, you'll have to initiate a pairing session.

We're all really eager to help you, so please pair with us! It's fun for us, and it'll be useful to you.

Take a look at this pairing planner for some info about who's available. If they put their name on this list, it's because they want to pair with you. It's not a hassle to help, we happen to enjoy it.

Here's the folks you can pair with, along with a blurb from each of them:

Josh Thompson

I like helping other folks. Teaching is a blast to me. Especially in small groups.

slack: @josh_t

Schedule a pairing with me

Areas of strength:

Git workflows
tools (like terminal, atom)
Enumerables
TDD

Joseph Glass

I love to explain the 'why' behind code, and I'm a big fan of coding muscle memory (aka repetitive practice!).

slack: @glassjoseph

Resource Reference Page

This is a list of resources, tools and high-quality exercises that helped us through Mod 1. Some you can use today, some won't be helpful till later on in the mod. Don't feel pressured to use them all, but for us they were big time-savers.

Pairing Strategies

Sign Up!

Even if you're not yet sure what to talk about, sign up anyway. You'll have questions by the time your pairing slot comes.

Have a Plan

It's not always possible, but having a plan adds focus to your pairing. Do you want to go over a homework, refactor a project or revisit a confusing topic? What have you tried, and why do you think it has or hasn't worked?

Write down Question

Consider keeping a running list of questions that come up throughout the week. This will not only give you plenty of content for a pairing, it will make your learning more intentional.

General Advice

Download Atom
If you're stuck for over 30 minutes, ask for help.

Shortcuts

Atom

Comment Out - Cmd + /
Move line up/down - Cmd + Ctrl + up/down
Hide Side-bar - Cmd + \
Fuzzy Finder - Cmd + p

Aliasing

Aliases are command-line shortcuts. Only do this if you're tired of typing cd ~/user/stuff/turing/1mod/homework over and over
Open your bash profile in your favorite text editor atom ~/.bash_profile and follow the link's instructions on "Permanent Aliases"

Downloads

Atom Add-ons

Just search for these under "Preferences" (Cmd + ,) then "Install" in Atom

indent-guide-improved
Linter
linter-rubocop
autosave (just enable this one)

tldr

man pages are long and esoteric. Tldr gives a brief summary of what a command actually does.
Install: brew install tldr

Pry

Note: wait till you start using pry to get these:

pry-state

prints out your variables whenever you enter pry
Install: gem install pry-state

pry-byebug

Adds some navigation options to pry
Install: gem install pry-byebug

Miscellaneous

Dash - Download and instantly search Ruby Docs on your machine
Spectacle - Visual tool. Lets you resize mac windows to preference.
Flux - Bright laptop screens at night can interfere with your sleep cycle. Flux dims your screen as it gets late and lets you fall asleep faster.