FAQ

Setup#

I fell behind during the setup in class. Work through Getting Started at your own pace. Stop at the step that breaks, and bring the error text or a screenshot to class or office hours.

My Babson AI key has not arrived. You do not request it: Babson's AI team emails it to you. Check your spam folder, and tell me if it is still missing. Your AI Tools and Babson Key has what the email contains and how to set it up.

uv is not recognized, or command not found, right after I installed it. Quit VS Code completely and open it again from GitHub Desktop, then run the command again. The Terminal explains why closing the terminal panel is not enough.

The terminal asked for my password and nothing appears when I type. A terminal shows nothing while you type a password: no dots and no moving cursor. Type it and press Enter. The installer should not ask at all, so step 5 of Getting Started also says how to avoid the prompt next time.

Your repository#

I edited a file and GitHub Desktop shows no change. The file is not saved yet. Save it with Ctrl+S on Windows or Cmd+S on macOS. A dot on the file's tab in VS Code means it has changes you have not saved.

My repository has no README. You do not need to start over. In VS Code, make a new file named README.md in the root folder of your repository, then commit and push it.

My repository is private. Open the repository on GitHub, go to Settings, scroll to the bottom, and change the visibility to public. The course website reads your repository, and it cannot read a private one.

My repository name has a space in it, or I made two repositories. Tell me before you delete anything, and bring the names of both.

My repository is in iCloud Drive or OneDrive. Move it out now. Those programs sync files while you work and can break a repository weeks later. To check on macOS, select the folder in Finder, press Cmd+I and read the Where line. On Windows, click the address bar in File Explorer and look for OneDrive. To move it:

1. Commit and push everything in GitHub Desktop.
2. Choose Repository → Remove..., and leave the box that moves it to the Trash unchecked.
3. Choose File → Clone Repository, and pick your course repository on the GitHub.com tab.
4. Click Choose... next to Local Path, and make a new folder called GitHub in your home folder. Cmd+Shift+H jumps there on macOS; on Windows it is C:\Users\<your-name>.
5. Click Clone, then Open in Visual Studio Code.
6. Run uv sync in VS Code's Terminal.
7. Once your notebook runs from the new copy, delete the old folder.

uv stops with os error 4551 on Windows. The message ends with "An Application Control policy has blocked this file". Windows' Smart App Control is blocking the programs uv builds on your computer. Open Windows Security, then App & browser control, then Smart App Control settings. If it is On, choose Off and run the command again. If the page says your organization manages it, tell me and contact your IT department. Deleting .venv does not help, because uv builds the same files again.

Can I use the GitHub account I already have? Yes. Add your Babson email to that account as an extra email address, instead of making a second account.

The tools#

What are GitHub Desktop, VS Code, marimo and github.com each for? Where Am I Typing? has a table of the four, with how to tell which one you are looking at.

Is SQL the same as a query in Excel? No. An Excel worksheet stops at 1,048,576 rows, and relating two tables there usually means a lookup formula filled down a column. A database holds far larger tables and relates them through keys, and SQL is the language for asking it questions. SQL is also text, which a language model reads and writes well.

I already know Excel well. What will this course add? The tools differ, as the answer above says, and your habits still carry over. When you build a PivotTable you are grouping rows and aggregating them, which is what GROUP BY does, and an XLOOKUP does the work of a LEFT JOIN. You gain an analysis you can run again next month with one command, that can reach a database or an API, and that keeps a record of how a number was produced. When to leave the spreadsheet has the full mapping and the signals that tell you which tool a job wants.

Why marimo and not Jupyter? marimo notebooks are plain Python files, so your work has readable diffs and a real history. When you change a value, marimo reruns every cell that depends on it, so the screen always matches the code. A Jupyter notebook can leave an old result on screen that the code no longer produces.

Everything else#

Can I get the next session's notebook or slides early? No. I write each one for where the class has reached, and post it on the course site before that session. To study ahead, use the handbooks: they cover the same Python and SQL in order, and each section has Try it blocks with their own answers.

Something on this site is wrong or out of date. Tell me. That counts, and it is the same skill the course grades.

Does this site track what I do? It counts visits with Umami, an open-source analytics tool I run on my own server. It records which pages are opened, when, on what kind of browser and device, and the city the request came from. It sets no cookies and stores nothing that identifies you, so what I see are totals across all visitors.