# What You Need to Know

### Core Skills/Tools - basic familiarity is required

* git + GitHub: basic source control skills are pivotal for working with teams
* TypeScript: a javascript superset that adds powerful typing and other functionality; if you know javascript, you can write TypeScript
* nodejs: server/cloud javascript (we use 8.x for AWS Lambda compatibility)

### Recommended Tools - use these, or bring and know your own

* Laptop: bring your own, or let us know if you need to reserve a workstation
* VSCode: open source code editor with live debugging for front-end and back-end environments, extensive plugin ecosystem
* TortoiseGit (Windows Shell UI for git)
* Markdown editors/viewers: Markdown Preview Plus (view in Chrome), edit/preview in VSCode, Typora (win/mac/linux)

### What you need: tl;dr

You need a laptop and a code editor, plus a basic understanding of git, javascript and Markdown. 

### Get up to Speed: Tutorials

* [Learn Markdown](https://www.markdowntutorial.com) in 30 minutes
* Git
  * [Git resources--handbook, cheat sheets, etc.](https://try.github.io/)
  * [Github + git from command line (shell)](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-you-can-learn-git-and-github-while-youre-learning-to-code-7a592ea287ba)
  * [Git + TortoiseGit (installs in Windows Explorer)](http://robertgreiner.com/2010/02/getting-started-with-git-and-tortoisegit-on-windows/)


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