Getting Started Coding
======================

.. note::
  **Staff Advice:** Design a solution before starting the implementation.
  Students consistently agree that design is harder than implementation across
  multiple iterations of this project. A faithful implementation of a faulty
  design will not earn you many points.

  See additional suggestions in :ref:`staff_advice`.

Follow these steps to get started with the coding portion of Project 2.

1. `Install Golang <https://golang.org/doc/install>`_.

#. Complete the online `Golang Tutorial <https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1>`_.
   
   - The tutorial can take quite a bit of time to complete, so plan accordingly.
   - The tutorial is a helpful tool that you may end up referencing frequently,
     especially while learning Go for the first time.

#. Clone the `Project 2 - Starter Code repoistory`_.

#. In the root of the repository, run: ``go test``. Go will automatically
   retrieve the dependencies defined in ``go.mod`` and run the tests defined in
   ``proj2_test.go``. It is expected that some tests will fail because you have
   not yet implemented all of the required functions.

.. _userlib: https://github.com/cs161-staff/project2-userlib/blob/master/userlib.go
.. _Project 2 - Starter Code repoistory: https://github.com/cs161-staff/project2-starter-code