You’re bringing your own laptop to this course, and it’s your primary piece of studio equipment for the semester — the same way a working X-Acto knife and a full sketchbook would be for a traditional studio class. Before we start installing anything, get the computer itself in good shape.
First-Week Checklist
- Install the latest updates available for your computer.
- Install Chrome.
- Confirm you have free disk space.
- Know your passwords.
- Bring your charger.
Install the Latest Updates Available
Check for and install any pending macOS or Windows updates, then restart your computer.
You don’t need to be running the newest major version of macOS or Windows — some laptops can’t run it, and that doesn’t make your computer unsuitable for this course. Just make sure you’re current on whatever version you have.
One important exception: don’t start a major system upgrade five minutes before class. Install updates when you have time for your computer to restart and finish the process. A half-finished update in the middle of studio time is a bad way to lose twenty minutes.
Install Chrome
Whatever browser you normally use is fine for everyday work, but install Chrome as well. Having everyone on the same browser makes in-class demonstrations and troubleshooting much faster — if something looks different on your screen than on the demo, the browser is one less variable to check.
Confirm You Have Free Disk Space
You don’t need a dedicated development machine, but a nearly full drive causes updates, application installs, and downloads to fail in confusing, hard-to-diagnose ways. Check that you have some room to spare before the semester gets busy.
Know Your Passwords
Make sure you can sign into all of the following without digging through old notes or relying on a password saved somewhere you can’t access in class:
- your computer’s login
- your RWU account
- your rwu.me hosting account (once you’ve created it)
Bring Your Charger
Obvious, but worth saying: bring your charger to every class.
What You’ll Install Later
Two more pieces of software join this list as the semester moves into specific phases:
- Phoenix Code — once we start building websites, see First Website Project.
- An FTP client — before the publishing lesson, see Publish Your First Web Page.
You don’t need either of these yet. This page is just about making sure the computer underneath all of it is ready to go.