assignment0-431.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <!-- The above 3 meta tags *must* come first in the head; any other head content must come *after* these tags -->
    <meta name="description" content="Course homepage for CS 431/631 451/651 Data-Intensive Distributed Computing (Winter 2019) at the University of Waterloo">
    <meta name="author" content="Adam Roegiest">
    <title>Data-Intensive Distributed Computing</title>

    <!-- Bootstrap core CSS -->
    <link href="css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- IE10 viewport hack for Surface/desktop Windows 8 bug -->
    <link href="css/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- Just for debugging purposes. Don't actually copy these 2 lines! -->
    <!--[if lt IE 9]><script src="../../assets/js/ie8-responsive-file-warning.js"></script><![endif]-->
    <script src="js/ie-emulation-modes-warning.js"></script>

    <!-- HTML5 shim and Respond.js for IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries -->
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/html5shiv/3.7.3/html5shiv.min.js"></script>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/respond/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->

    <style>
      body {
        padding-top: 60px; /* 60px to make the container go all the way to the bottom of the topbar */
      }
    </style>

  </head>


  <body>

    <nav class="navbar navbar-inverse navbar-fixed-top">
      <div class="container">
        <div class="navbar-header">
          <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbar" aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="navbar">
            <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            <span class="icon-bar"></span>
          </button>
        </div>
        <div id="navbar" class="collapse navbar-collapse">
          <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
            <li><a href="index.html">Overview</a></li>
            <li><a href="organization.html">Organization</a></li>
            <li><a href="syllabus.html">Syllabus</a></li>
            <li class="active"><a href="assignments.html">Assignments</a></li>
            <li><a href="software.html">Software</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
      </div>
    </nav>

    <div class="container">

  <div class="page-header">
    <div style="float: right"><img width="250" src="images/waterloo_logo.png" alt="University of Waterloo logo"/></div>
    <h1>Assignments <br/><small>Data-Intensive Distributed Computing (Winter 2019)</small></h1>
  </div>

<p>Note that there separate sets of assignments for CS 451/651 and CS
431/631. Make sure you work on the correct asssignments!</p>

<p><a href="assignments-431.html" class="btn btn-info btn-large">CS 431/631 Assignments</a></p>

  <div class="subnav">
    <ul class="nav nav-pills">
      <li><a href="assignment0-431.html">0</a></li>
      <li><a href="assignment1-431.html">1</a></li>
      <li><a href="assignment2-431.html">2</a></li>
      <li><a href="assignment3-431.html">3</a></li>
      <li><a href="assignment4-431.html">4</a></li>
      <li><a href="assignment5-431.html">5</a></li>
      <li><a href="project-431.html">Final Project</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  
  <h3>Assignment 0: Warmup <small>due 2:30pm January 22</small></h3>

  <p>This assignment is a warmup exercise to get you familar with
  some of the basic tools you will need for the remaining
  assignments.   In particular, we will be making use of
  Python (for programming) and Jupyter notebooks.</p>

<p>The general setup is as follows:  for each assignment, you will
  be provided with a "starter" notebook, which will describe what
  needs to be done for that assignment.   You'll complete the
  assignment in the notebook, and then submit your notebook to a 
private GitHub repo. Shortly after the assignment deadline, we'll 
pull your repo for marking.</p>

<p>I'm assuming you already have
a <a href="http://github.com/">GitHub</a> account. If not, create one
as soon as possible. Once you've signed up for an account, go and
<a href="https://education.github.com/discount_requests/new">request
an educational account</a>. This will allow you to create private
repos for free. Please do this as soon as possible since there may be
delays in the request verification process.</p>

<p>Create a <b>private</b> repo called <code>bigdata2019w</code>. I'm
assuming that you're already familiar GitHub, but just in
case, here is <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/create-a-repo">how
you create a repo on GitHub</a>. If you've successfully gotten an
educational account (per above), you should be able to create private
repos for free.</p>

<h4 style="padding-top: 10px">Python and Jupyter</h4>

<p>All of the programming required for the assignments will be in
  Python. If you have never programmed in Python before, you
  will need to gradually bring yourself up to speed.
  There are many on-line resources that can help with this.
  A good place to start is <a target="_blank"
			      href="https://www.python.org/">python.org</a>.
  In particular, you can start with their <a target="_blank"
  href="https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/index.html">Python Tutorial</a>.
  If you don't like that particular tutorial, there
  are <a href="https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Programmers"
	 target="_blank">many others to choose from</a>.
  There are also many Python books
  to choose from, if you prefer to learn that way.
  Choose a book that fits your needs.   For example, some books target
  people who are migrating to Python from other languages, while
  others are directed at novice programmers.</p>

 <p>Most Python tutorials expect you to try out examples as you
   go along, i.e., they expect you to write and run Python code.
   This kind of active learing is definitely the way to go.
   The simplest way for you to run Python code is by using a
   Jupyter notebook running on the CS Jupyter hub (see below).
   This will allow you to run Python in a web browser, without
   having to install any software on your machine.   If you
   wish, you can also install Python locally on your own machine.
   Python is
   <a href="https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/Download"
      target="_blank"> freely available for a variety of platforms</a>.
   Bear in mind that all assignments for CS431/631 will be done using
      notebooks, so it is not a bad idea to get used to them.</p>
      
<h4 style="padding-top: 10px">Jupyter Notebooks</h4>

  <p>
    For
  this course, you will be writing and running Python code in
  <a href="http://jupyter.org/" target="_blank">Jupyter
    notebooks</a>.   Each notebook consists of a sequence of <i>cells</i>.
  An cell can hold (formatted) text, Python code, or graphics.   A great thing
  about notebooks is that you can open and run them in a web browser.
  This means that you can
  work on your own machine, using only a web browser, without having
  to install any additional software.</p>


<p>A Jupyter "hub" is a place to store and use Jupyter notebooks.
  For the CS431/631 assignments, you'll be using a hub operated by
  the School of Computer Science.  To get started,
  go to <a href="https://jupyter.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca:8000"
	   target="_blank">jupyter.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca</a>.
  Log in using your userid and password for the <emph>CS student computing
    environment</emph> (not your WatIAM password).
  Once you have logged in, you should see a list of folders and files
  - this is the contents of your home directory (folder) in the
    CS student computing environment.
  <!-- <ins>Unfortunately, the CS Jupyter hub is not yet ready for use.
    So, for Assignment 0, we will instead be using a similar hub
    run by Compute Canada.   To get started, go to
    <a href="https://uwaterloo.syzygy.ca/"
       target="_blank">https://uwaterloo.syzygy.ca/</a>, and log in
    using your <emph>WatIAM</emph> password.   Once you are
    authenticated, click on the <samp>Start My Server</samp> button.
    It will take a few minutes for your server to launch.   Once it
    does, you will see the contents of your home folder, which should
    be empty at this point.   You can now proceed with the
    instructions below, just as you would on the
    CS hub.</ins></p> -->

<p>
  It is a good idea to create
  a new folder to hold all of your work for this course, if you do
  not already have one.   To do this, use the <samp>New</samp> dropdown on the
  top right to create a new folder, and call the folder <samp>cs431</samp>
  (or whatever name you prefer).   Then, open your new folder by
  clicking on it.
</p>

<p>
  Once you are in your <samp>cs431</samp> folder, try creating a new
  Jupyter notebook.
To create a notebook, use the <samp>New</samp> dropdown to
create a new Python 3 notebook.
You should see something that looks like this:
<div style="padding-top: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom:
	    20px"><img width="800px" src="images/newnotebook.png"
	    alt="A New Jupyter Notebook"/></div>
This represents
a notebook with a single, empty cell.
Before going any further with your notebook, try out the following
three basic things that you will need to be able to do:
<ol>
<li>First, change the name of your notebook by clicking on the
  current
  name ("Untitled"), and entering a new name, say, <samp>Test
    Notebook</samp>.</li>
<li>Next, save your notebook using <samp>Save and Checkpoint</samp> from
  the <samp>File</samp> menu.   Saving a notebook saves its current state,
  so that you can stop working at any time, and resume later from where you left
  off.</li>
<li>Finally, stop your notebook by selecting <samp>Close and Halt</samp> from the
  <samp>File</samp> menu.   This should take you back to your list of files and
  folders.   You should see a new file called <samp>Test
  Notebook.ipynb</samp>, which is your saved notebook.   By clicking on
  that notebook file, you can start your notebook running again from the point
  at which you last saved (try it!).</li>
</ol>
Once you've tried out these basics, start your test notebook and spend
some time familiarizing yourself with the notebook interface.
Take the User Interface Tour, which you can launch from the <samp>Help</samp>
menu of a running notebook.</p>

<h4 style="padding-top: 10px">Assignment Workflow</h4>

<p> The basic workflow for each assignment will be something like this:
  <ol>
    <li>Download the starter notebook for the assignment, as well as any
      other required files, from the assignment web page to your computer.</li>
    <li>Use a web browser to log in to the CS Jupyter
      hub at  <a href="https://jupyter.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca:8000"
	   target="_blank">jupyter.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca</a>.
    <li>Upload the starter notebook for the assignment, as well as any
      other required files, from your computer to the CS hub, into
      your <samp>cs431</samp> folder.</li>
    <li>Launch the starter notebook that you just uploaded, and follow
      the instructions in
      the notebook to complete the assignment.  Be sure to save your work.</li>
    <li>When you are finished with the assignment, download your notebook
      (the <samp>.ipynb</samp> file) from your <samp>cs431</samp> folder on
      the hub to your computer, and submit it to the course staff by
      following the <a href="#submitting">submission instructions</a>.</li>
  </ol>
</p>

<h4 style="padding-top: 10px">Assignment 0</h4>

For the first assignment, you will do some simple analyses on the
text of Shakespeare's plays.
For this assignment, you will need to download three files to your
local machine, and then upload them to the Jupyter hub.
They are:
<ul>
<li><a href="content/cs431/Shakespeare.txt">Shakespeare.txt</a>:  this is a plain text file that contains the
  complete text of Shakespeare's plays.</li>
<li><a href="content/cs431/simple_tokenize.py">simple_tokenize.py</a>:
    this is a simple Python module for tokenizing
    text</li>
  <li><a href="content/cs431/A0.ipynb">A0.ipynb</a>: this is the starter
  notebook for A0, in which you will do your assignment work.
</ul>
Files with names that end in <samp>.ipynb</samp> are Python notebook
files.   When you work in a notebook and save your work, your work
is saved in the <samp>.ipynb</samp> file.   You'll submit
your saved <samp>A0.ipynb</samp> file to your github repository when you are done with
the assignment.   That will allow us to open your notebook and review
your work.

After you have uploaded these files to the hub, open <samp>A0.ipynb</samp>
to get started on the assignment.   The notebook itself describes what
we expect you to do.

<a name="submitting"></a>
<h4 style="padding-top: 10px">Submitting Assignment 0</h4>

<p>
Once you are done with the assignment, submit A0 using the following steps:
<ol>
<li>Download your <samp>A0.ipynb</samp> file from the Jupyter hub to your
  computer.</li>
<li>Submit your <samp>A0.ipynb</samp> file to your GitHub repository using the web interface. 
  If you're not already familiar with GitHub, here is <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/adding-a-file-to-a-repository/">how
you submit a new file to a repo on GitHub</a>. Make sure your <samp>A0.ipynb</samp> file is committed to the master branch. Your assignment should be viewable in the web interface.</li>
<li>Add the
user <a href="https://github.com/bigdatateach">bigdatateach</a> a
collaborator to your repo so that we can access it. Here is <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/inviting-collaborators-to-a-personal-repository/">how
you add a collaborator to your repo</a>.</li>
<li>Finally, you need to tell us your GitHub account so we can link it
to you. Submit your information <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/BVdXDGIXxWOuhUze2">here</a>.</li>
</ol>
</p>

<p style="padding-top: 20px"><a href="#">Back to top</a></p>

<div style="padding-bottom: 100px"></div>

    </div><!-- /.container -->


    <!-- Placed at the end of the document so the pages load faster -->
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <!-- IE10 viewport hack for Surface/desktop Windows 8 bug -->
    <script src="js/ie10-viewport-bug-workaround.js"></script>

  </body>
</html>