Simplify setup page

[jmshapir]

@gentzkow continuing my summer work simplifying the lab manual a bit.

For the setup page, I propose to drop a bunch of the narrative (e.g. what we use python for) and focus on:

• where these tools can be found
• any specific install instructions that aren't obvious
• where one can read more about these tools
• which readings we consider definitely worthwhile

Let me know if this sounds good and I can take a pass, thanks.

[gentzkow]

Sounds good to me.

I would like to keep most of the narrative about Git/Github, LFS, and Dropbox -- I think it's nice if this introduction gives a quick sense of the role these play in our workflow. For Python / R / Stata I think the most relevant thing someone new might ask is when we use which; I don't think the current page really answers this, so maybe we can just say we use different tools in different projects without a lot of comment. For Lyx, I think a good update would be to write this so it's clear some projects use Lyx and others may use Latex/Overleaf.

[jmshapir]

@gentzkow thanks and that all makes sense to me.

My thought was that we could link to our workflow page to explain how we use github and to our data page to explain how we use lfs/dropbox.

With that in mind do you want to follow the approach we had on #22--make a PDF where you highlight the info that you think is essential to keep and I can try to rewrite with that in mind?

[gentzkow]

Setup · gslab-econ_lab-manual Wiki.pdf

Here you go! I did not include the references for learning the tools. I also think we should include those, but it sounded like that was part of your plan already.

[jmshapir]

@gentzkow thanks and done! I tried to tighten where I could while keeping to the spirit of your notes. If good feel free to close; if not let me know!

[gentzkow]

Summary

JMS revised the setup page

[snairdesai]

@gentzkow Let me know if this should be closed out for housekeeping given the summary comment above.

[gentzkow]

Thanks for catching that @snairdesai!