DPS909/OSD600 Fall 2018 Lab 1
Contents
Start blogging
Due Date
All Labs are due on the Friday of the week they are assigned (i.e., this lab is due Friday Sept 14 before midnight).
Requirements
This lab will introduce you to blogging, the CDOT wiki, and node's fs module. Here is a checklist of what needs to be done (see below for more details):
- Create a CDOT wiki account
- Create a Blog account
- Add your Blog's RSS Feed URL to the CDOT Wiki's Planet Feed List
- Research a node.js fs module feature
- Write a short post about how to use this feature in the various supported
- Add your Name and Blog post's URL to the table at the end of this lab
Blogging and Open Source
The "open" in "Open Source" means more than just that the code is available. Real open source is open in terms of its process, too: open source is about working in the open. A big part of working in the open is writing about that work, teaching one another things we discover as we go, and helping to draw attention to important ideas. Writing is a major part of open source, and we'll use our blogs to write, discuss, debate, announce, plan, and learn.
Open source also values writing like this for the historical perspective it gives. Long after project or code decisions are made, we often need and want to go back and understand why things happened as they did. Blogging contributes to the historical record.
Finally, blogging provides a way to capture our hard work and contributions. When students are applying for jobs, it's helpful to have something they can point to, in order to showcase their previous work. By keeping a blog now, you help build a record of your abilities, experience, and contributions.
Having your own blog will enable you to more easily join the global open source community. A blog gives you a voice, which you can use when and how you want.
You will be required to keep a weekly blog for the duration of the course. We'll use this blog to share what we're learning, discuss open source, submit our labs and releases, etc.
In this lab you will create, configure, and use your blog for the first time.
Pick a Blogging Platform
You can use any blogging platform or software you want, as long as it supports RSS/atom feeds. If you already have a blog, you're free to use it (skip to the next section). If you don't, there are a number of free, popular blogging platforms you can use:
Take a look at the different options and choose one you like. Create an account for yourself.
Research a node.js fs feature
Pick a feature of node.js' fs module to research. For example, you might look at how to delete a file:
Try writing a few small JavaScript programs that use these methods in various ways, making sure you understand how they work, the differences between them, and why someone might choose one over the other.
Write a Blog Post
Using the research you did above, write a short tutorial blog post about the feature you researched. Imagine someone is searching Google for this knowledge and finds your post, what would they want to see? Make sure you include sample code and links to relevant documentation. See if you can figure out how to get your code to look "pretty" (i.e., fixed width font, properly indented, syntax highlighted) within your blog.
Tag your Post as "Open Source"
Blogging platforms allow you to tag your posts (sometimes called a "category," or a "feed"). This allows you to syndicate posts you've written on a given topic without also including others (e.g., you might want to write about "Open Source" and "Baseball" in the same blog).
Create a CDOT Wiki account
For various aspects of the course, including this lab, you will need to be able to edit this wiki. Make sure you have an account, or request one.
NOTE: your request will need to be processed by the wiki admin, and it might take a day or so.
Add your "Open Source" RSS feed to the CDOT Planet Feed List
We automatically aggregate all the blogs of our students and faculty who are working on open source at Seneca, and publish it to http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/~chris.tyler/planet/ (aka, Planet CDOT). Add your own blog's "open source" feed URL by following the instructions at the Planet CDOT Feed List.
Submission
You will have completed your lab when your blog post from Step 5 appears on the CDOT Planet site. I will mark them as they appear there.
Please add a line for your blog in the following table:
