Introduction
============

In this course you will learn how to build online experiments using jsPsych and JavaScript.

JavaScript is a programming language used by web browsers, and jsPsych is a toolkit with useful extra functions which uses JavaScript.

Before you start
----------------

For this course you will need a programmers' editor and something to allow you to transfer
files to the server. If you don't already have these, I recommend the editor VSCodium
and the file transfer program CyberDuck. Both of these are free and open source.

Here are links to download VSCodium:

| `Windows <https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases/download/1.104.06131/VSCodiumUserSetup-x64-1.104.06131.exe>`_
| `Mac (Intel) <https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases/download/1.104.06131/VSCodium.x64.1.104.06131.dmg>`_
| `Mac (Apple Silicon) <https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases/download/1.104.06131/VSCodium.arm64.1.104.06131.dmg>`_

(VSCodium is a variant of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code without telemetry and CoPilot - if you've already installed Visual Studio Code that's fine!)

For CyberDuck, here are download links for Windows and Mac.

| `Windows link <https://update.cyberduck.io/windows/Cyberduck-Installer-9.2.4.43667.exe>`_
| `Mac link <https://update.cyberduck.io/Cyberduck-9.2.4.43667.zip>`_

To transfer files from Linux, it will depend on your distribution. In most Linux distributions you can
connect directly in the desktop file browser, or use the ``scp`` command.

Install these before you start working through the rest of the materials.

.. include:: site_specific/hosting_about.rst

Exercises and solutions
-----------------------

There are exercises throughout this course to help you practice and test your
understanding. Solutions are provided, and are linked from each exercise
and together in the :doc:`course table of contents <index>`.

Feel free to use these solutions to help you at any stage. In
particular, you might find it useful to use the solution for a previous
exercise as a starting point for the next exercise, or to play with the
capabilities of jsPsych.