We will be holding our first tutorial, one that came directly out of the feedback from the first RSF: Version control with git.

Version control is one of the most basic tools used when creating software, writing an anaylsis, or even writing a paper. Version control can be a huge time saver, tracking all the changes you have made to your documents (be it code, packages or papers). It allows you to revist previous versions, and track down when your code stopped working.

In this tutorial we will walk you through using GIT, a lightweight version control system. We will look at basic features such as tracking your changes locally, then move onto using remote repositories (e.g. GitHub/GitLab/BitBucket) to store and track your changes. This will then finish by talking you through collaborating with colleagues and merging their changes into yours, followed by advanced features such as branches.

This talk is aimed at beginners and those that want to learn a little more. You will need to bring a laptop with git installed (https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git). The tutorial is designed around using linux/mac as the operating system, however the commands are transferable and windows could be used (You can use SSH and ius.lancs.ac.uk if you want to use linux but only have a windows laptop.)

The event will run from 10:00 – 15:00. We will break at 12:00 for an hour so people can get their lunch (not provided), although the instructor will remain around for those who wish to work through lunch. Morning and afternoon tea/coffee and biscuits will be provided.

To sign up for the event (please do as I then have numbers for tea / coffee.) please go to:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-version-control-with-git-tickets-43505430915

The first (of what will hopefully be many) Research Software Forums was held on 22/11/17.   There was a great turnout from across all the faculties with some wonderful talks given and lots of discussion over lunch.  The format, that might be tweaked slightly for the next one started with Robin Long giving an opening talk on what exactly sustainable software is and why we, as researchers, need it.

Then we had a series of lightning talks covering many different aspects such as information on services and help available, concepts such as testing, individual research projects, or tools that people might find useful.

Talks will be uploaded once the speakers have given consent, until then, the list of titles and speakers was:

• High End Computing Cluster – Mike Pacey, ISS (Information Systems Services)
• Test Driven Development – Andy Wharton, Physics
• OutreachDS – Chris Jewell, CHICAS
• How to differentiate a Computer Program – Daniel Grose, Maths and Stats
• All aboard!, A glimpse on Container Technologies and the liberation from hardware’s prison – Juan M. Escamillia Molgora, LEC
• R Markdown in 3 minutes – Rebecca Killick, Maths and Stats
• SpatialEpiApp: a Shiny web application for the analysis of spatial and spatio- temporal disease data – Paula Moraga, CHICAS
• Switching between CPU and GPU on-the-fly using CuPy – Stephan Tulkens, Psychology
• How to get help with Scientific Software – Barry Rowlingson, CHICAS

All the talks are available on the event page: Research Software Forum I – 22/11/2017

After all these great talks we broke for discussions over lunch.   In general the discussions were very varied and I was pleased to see that this seemed to help with initial aim of the meeting; getting researchers to discuss their software and how to use software for research.

After lunch we broke into 3 main groups for some group discussions. The main topics were:

• Testing and test driven development
• Research Software Engineers
• Training and how to continue these meetings.

We finished with a quick catch-up and ended the meeting.

I believe this went well.   Surveys have been sent out to the participants – summarised results to follow in another blog post. We will then tweak the format and hold another meeting in the new year.  One major comment to come out of the discussions was peoples desire for training in version control – we are trying to organise one of these for the new year.