write dev guide (#9)

Author: haileyajohnson

docs/dev_guide/contribute.md

@@ -1,8 +1,16 @@
 # Contributors guide
 - welcome contributions!
-- types on contributions
-- workflow
+- types of contributions
 
 ## Setting up your git workflow
 
-## Tips & tricks
+## Making your changes
+
+### linting
+### testing
+### documenting
+
+## Making your pull request
+
+
+## Get help

docs/dev_guide/index.md

@@ -1,10 +1,35 @@
 # Installing CDIPpy for development 
-This page contains instructions for CDIPpy users interested in customizing or contributiing to the library.
+This page contains instructions for CDIPpy users interested in customizing or contributing to the library.
 
-## Download from source
+## Download source
+Clone the [CDIPpy repository](https://github.com/cdipsw/CDIPpy):  
+
+* using `ssh` - `git clone git@github.com:cdipsw/CDIPpy.git`
+* using `https` - `git clone https://github.com/cdipsw/CDIPpy.git`
+
+If you need help getting started with [Git](https://git-scm.com/doc) and [GitHub](https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/get-started).
+You'll specifically want to look at configuring credentials with [https](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitcredentials) or [ssh](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh).  
+[Oh Shit, Git?!](https://ohshitgit.com/) is another great resource for fixing git problems.
 
 ## Install with dev tools
+It is recommended to us [`uv`](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) to manage you development environment for this project, but other package managers will likely work as well. This documentation provides instructions for using `uv`.
+
+Navigate to the project root dirctory ('CDIPpy/') and run the following:
+``` bash
+>>> pip install uv # install uv pacakge manager
+>>> uv venv # create a virtual envionment at CDIPpy/.venv/
+>>> source activate .venv/bin/activate # activate the environment
+>>> uv pip install -e .[dev] # install the source code, its runtime dependencies, and its dev. dependencies.
+```
+Using the `-e` flag tells `uv` to point the installation to the source code directory, so that changes you make will be automatically reflected in the environment without reinstalling the package. The `[dev]` specifier installs the packages requires to run tests, lint, and build documentation.
 
 ### testing
+You can check that your dev installation was successful by running unit tests from the root directory: `python -m unittest discover`.  
+This runs every test in the library; you should see all successful tests.  
+
+Learn more about running specific tests or subsets from the [`unittest` docs](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.html).
+
+### linting
+This library uses `flake8` to check for adherance to the [PEP8](https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/) style guide. To check whether your code is compliant with the project style, run `flake8 .` from the project root.  You can fix problems manually, or use a tool like [`black`](https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) to autolint: `black .`.  
 
-### linting
+This project also provides a [`pre-commit`](https://pre-commit.com/) hook to manage style for you autmatically on every `git commit`. To install it, run `pre-commit install` from the project root - this will use `black` and `flake` to autolint and check any changes you make for style before committing them to the repository.