Got the triangle working! It only took 10 hours.

colored_triangle.vert

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#version 450
+
+layout (location = 0) out vec3 outColor;
+
+void main() 
+{
+	//const array of positions for the triangle
+	const vec3 positions[3] = vec3[3](
+		vec3(1.f,1.f, 0.0f),
+		vec3(-1.f,1.f, 0.0f),
+		vec3(0.f,-1.f, 0.0f)
+	);
+
+	//const array of colors for the triangle
+	const vec3 colors[3] = vec3[3](
+		vec3(1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f), //red
+		vec3(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f), //green
+		vec3(00.f, 0.0f, 1.0f)  //blue
+	);
+
+	//output the position of each vertex
+	gl_Position = vec4(positions[gl_VertexIndex], 1.0f);
+	outColor = colors[gl_VertexIndex];
+}