Key Points

Getting Started with the Shell

“The shell is a powerful interface for scientific workflows and automation.”
“pwd, ls, and cd are core commands for navigation.”
“mkdir, touch, cp, mv, and rm cover most basic file operations.”
“echo with > and >> lets you create files and append text from the command line.”
“cat displays text file contents quickly in the terminal.”
“nano is a beginner-friendly terminal editor for creating and updating text files.”
“Use --help, man, and tab completion to work faster and more safely.”

“Xarray can load NetCDF files (and other formats such as GRIB and Zarr).”
“We can address dimensions by name with dot syntax, bracket syntax, sel, and isel.”
“With lazy loading, data are only loaded into memory when needed.”
“Whole-array math operations are usually more efficient than explicit Python loops.”
“Custom functions can be applied across arrays with tools such as apply_ufunc.”
“Xarray can plot directly through Matplotlib-backed plotting methods.”
“Hvplot enables interactive visualisations.”
“Xarray includes built-in patterns such as resampling, grouping, rolling, and coarsening.”

“Install Git locally and configure your identity before starting a project.”
“Create a GitHub account so you are ready for collaboration and remote repositories.”
“git status, git diff, git add, and git commit form the core local workflow.”
“Git history (git log, git show) lets you track what changed and when.”
“Branches isolate work; merging brings reviewed changes back into main.”
“The staging area is central to Git: it lets you build clean, intentional commits.”
“Frequent git status checks help you stay oriented and avoid mistakes.”