Technology

Visual Studio Code

We will do the work of this course in Visual Studio Code (VS Code), a free editor from Microsoft for Mac and Windows. In VS Code, you can work with an AI assistant, run the code that it writes for you, and keep all the files for a project in one place. No coding background is required.

Please set up VS Code before the first class using the Setup Guide, and bring a laptop to every session.

Claude Code or Codex

Inside VS Code, we will use an AI coding agent: either Claude Code (from Anthropic) or Codex (from OpenAI). Unlike a chat window, an agent can read the files in your project, write and run code, and fix its own errors while you watch. You will choose one of the two and set it up before the first class, following the Setup Guide. This is part of Milestone #1.

Google Colab

Some exercises use Google Colab, a free service from Google that runs Python notebooks in your web browser, so there is nothing to install. You only need a Google account. Colab notebooks can also be opened inside VS Code with the Google Colab extension.