Programming for Information Professionals

UNC SILS, INLS 560, Spring 2026

January 8
First meeting

Our first meeting of the semester is Thursday, January 8 at 9:30AM in Manning 01.

January 8
Introduction to the course

Total amount of required reading for this meeting: 3,600 words

πŸ“– To read before this meeting:

  1. Vinge, Vernor. “Software Archaeology.” In A Deepness in the Sky, 183–86. New York: Tor, 1999. PDF.
    1,400 words
  2. Quéru, Jean-Baptiste. “Dizzying but Invisible Depth,” October 15, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20150417195936/https://plus.google.com/+JeanBaptisteQueru/posts/dfydM2Cnepe.
    1,200 words
  3. Recurse Center. “Social Rules,” n.d. https://www.recurse.com/social-rules.
    1,000 words

January 13
GitHub and GitHub Classroom

πŸ“– To read before this meeting:

  1. GitHub, Inc. “Start Your Journey: Learn the Basics of GitHub.” GitHub Docs, 2024. https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/start-your-journey.

January 13
Hello, World available

January 15
Visual Studio Code and Codespaces

Total amount of required viewing for this meeting: 14 minutes

πŸ“Ί To view before this meeting:

  1. Microsoft, β€œLearn Visual Studio Code in 7min.”

    View. 7 minutes
    Viewing tips

    You can follow along at https://vscode.dev.

  2. Microsoft, β€œUsing Git with Visual Studio Code.”

    View. 7 minutes

January 20
GitHub Copilot

Total amount of required reading for this meeting: 2,300 words

πŸ“– To read before this meeting:

  1. GitHub, Inc. “What Is GitHub Copilot?” GitHub Docs, 2024. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/about-github-copilot/what-is-github-copilot.
  2. Butterick, Matthew. “GitHub Copilot Investigation,” 2022. https://githubcopilotinvestigation.com.
    2,300 words

January 20
Hello, World due

January 22
Designing functions I

January 22
Compound Interest available

January 27
Designing functions II

January 29
Variables, conditionals, strings, lists I

January 29
Compound Interest due

January 29
Flag Maker available

February 3
Variables, conditionals, strings, lists II

February 5
Loops, dicts, sets, files, modules I

February 5
Flag Maker due

February 5
Square Roots available

February 10
Loops, dicts, sets, files, modules II

February 12
Testing I

February 12
Square Roots due

February 12
Testing Athleticism available

February 17
Testing II

February 19
Mid-semester review

February 19
Testing Athleticism due

February 23–27
Mid-semester 1-on-1

Sometime between Monday, February 23 and Friday, February 27, you will schedule a 15-minute mid-semester 1-on-1 evaluation with me.

We will not meet as a class on Tuesday, February 24 or Thursday, February 26.

February 23
Mid-semester 1-on-1 available

February 27
Mid-semester 1-on-1 due

March 3
Problem decomposition I

March 3
Authorship identification available

March 5
Problem decomposition II

March 10
Debugging

March 10
Authorship identification due

March 12
Handling exceptions I

March 12
Assigning Grades available

March 17–19
Spring break

Due to spring break, we will not meet Tuesday, March 17 or Thursday, March 19.

March 24
Handling exceptions II

March 26
Handling exceptions III

March 26
Assigning Grades due

March 31
No class

Ryan will be out of town, so we will not meet today.

April 2
Well-being Day

Due to the well-being day, we will not meet today.

April 7
Going online I

April 7
Web Crawler available

April 9
Going online II

April 14
Going online III

April 14
Web Crawler due

April 16
End-of-semester review

April 20–24
Final 1-on-1

Sometime between Monday, April 20 and Friday, April 24, you will schedule a 30-minute final 1-on-1 evaluation with me.

We will not meet as a class on Tuesday, April 21 or Thursday, April 23.

April 20
Final 1-on-1 available

April 24
Final 1-on-1 due