Introduction

Ford handed the book to Arthur. “What is it?” asked Arthur. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a sort of electronic book. It tells you everything you need to know about anything. That’s its job.” Arthur turned it over nervously in his hands. “I like the cover,” he said. “Don’t Panic. It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody’s said to me all day.”

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Welcome to PSGY1001 (aka as “labs” or “practicals”1)! While this book might not tell you everything you need to know about anything, I hope it will tell you everything you need to know about PSGY1001! So, Don’t Panic! You can do it! And whenever you get stuck or have a question, just ask in one of the lab meetings (see Section 2.4.1) or post on the PSGY1001 General forum (see Section 4.3)—we are happy to help!

How to use this book

Please note the menu bar at the top. This has a number of useful functions:

The burger icon lets you hide the sidebar.

The search icon allows you to search the book. Use the down and up arrows to jump to the next and previous search result, respectively.

The font icon lets you change the font size, font, and background colour.

The PDF icon allows you to download a PDF version of the book.

The info icon displays information about keyboard shortcuts.

Please note that our focus will be on the HTML version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. The PDF file will likely have various layout issues and might lag behind the HTML version.

  1. But not workshops! Workshops have their own Workshop Moodle page!↩︎