Lesson 1: Node Introduction

Students complete the node tutorial up to part 12, the http server.

Tutorial video from start to 1:45:57. That is, until the end of the Http Module (More Features) chapter.

Tedium

This is a copy-and-paste-heavy assignment. Since students put their work into a different folder, it’s quite tricky to understand exactly what they changed unless you know the course well. As a workaround, you can move student work into the not-answers folder to easily see exactly what (if anything) they changed compared to the boilerplate that comes with the course:

git remote add $STUDENT_NAME $STUDENT_REMOTE_URI
git fetch $STUDENT_NAME
git checkout $STUDENT_NAME/$STUDENT_BRANCH
# Note that students often put their work in random places, but this is where
# it's supposed to be according to directions!
cp 01-node-tutorial/answers/*.js 01-node-tutorial
git diff

Also, note that example in ../01-node-tutorial/1-event-loop-examples and ../01-node-tutorial/2-async-patterns are not mentioned in CTD lesson pages. Students may interact with them, or may ignore them.

Hard Parts

Pay particular attention to the part 11: the callback-based async fs module tutorial. Callbacks are consistently confusing for students. In mentor sessions, be prepared to explain them! Emphasize the low-level asynchrony that exists during I/O operations. It is important for students to learn that requesting the contents of a file from the OS and receiving a buffer into which the OS has loaded the file are two distinct events, and our programs work better when program execution is not blocked in the meantime.

This explainer from Hussein Nasser is a great place to point advanced students who want to know more.

Here is a more beginner-friendly explainer with lots of animations.

By the Way!

You’ll notice that students have committed the .txt file outputs of their programs. This is normal, and not a mistake.