Your Development Environment

As a creative technologist and developer you will need to take control of your computer. You should start to consider your computer as an instrument or creative tool that serves as an extension of yourself.

This means you need to be comfortable with your computer and know your computer.

There are two different ways to find things on your computer.

Through the graphical user interface
Through the command-line interface

We are going to go through the graphical user interface and I will discuss the command line interface. If you are interested in exploring the command-line further, I will give you more information, but it will not be the focus.

GUI Directories

We need to define what a directory is and what a file is.

What is a directory?
1. A directory is a folder. It’s just a fancy word for folder. Remember, we are mimicing the physical desk. That’s why we have a desktop, folders and files. It’s so we can relate to them.
2. Files are what we are actually storing. Maybe they are pictures, videos, text documents, music, and more.

Why do we care?

We care because we want to organize our folders/directories and the files within them so that they we can find them again. Yes, we have a search bar that helps us, but it’s much better if we get into the habit of storing our files in an organized way.

How do we access our folders?

In Windows, you can click on the Start or Search and then look for This PC
On Mac, click on Finder and then go through the folders.

Let’s do some hands-on work here.

Go into your Documents folder regardless if you are on Windows or Mac and create a new Folder. How do we do that?

Right-click and choose New Folder.
Rename the folder MART 120.
Inside of that folder, create a new folder called Homework 1.
Inside of that folder, create a new file by opening TextEdit on a Mac or Notepad on Windows and place your name in it.
Save the file and close it.

I recommend creating a new folder for each homework and then you can save all your projects in there. We will do this inside your GitHub repository. We are just practicing here in the Documents folder. This will come in handy in your other classes too!

So, now what about the Command line interface? If you are interested, this next section is for you!

Command-line interface (CLI)

One of the most basic ways of working with your computer is through a command-line interface (CLI). example image of terminal.app

Although such programs can appear intimidating to a beginner user, these command line programs remove are simple applications that allow for detailed control of the OS. These programs allow a user to accomplish many of that same tasks that they are used to completing with a mouse, through text only commands. One reason to use such a program is that it can speed up the development process and also display more information than is typical of a traditional “graphical user interface” (GUI; pronounced ‘gooey’) based environment.

Learning your CLI

- Unix

Unix operating systems refer to both macOS (formerly OS X) and Linux. These OS’s will use similar commands within their CLI’s. On macOS, the default CLI is terminal.app. However, there are many CLI’s that can be downloaded and used in unix-based operating systems.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with using the terminal in unix operating systems, you should work through following book.

Unix for the Beginning Mage

This resource walks you through the basics of using terminal via a ‘cutesy’ story. (Sorry if this is not your thing. Unfortunately, it is a very good resource.)

NOTE: If you do not have Xcode.app installed on your Mac, you should do so. We will not be using Xcode, however, it installs additional command line tools which we will use. Xcode can be installed via the Mac App Store. After installing Xcode, open it once, then close it and forget about it for the time being.

- Windows

Windows users have a couple of options when it comes to a CLI. Traditionally, Windows has utilized a program known as Command Prompt for decades. This program is a relative of MS-DOS, an early operating system and precursor to Windows. In recent years there has been a move within the development community towards Window’s newer PowerShell CLI. However, there is also a move towards a Bash-like or true Bash (the Linux and macOS CLI) program for windows.

I am going to suggest you utilize the last of these options. Unfortunately, a Bash shell does not exist by default on Windows yet. You have two options to get one.

Windows now includes a “Linux Environment” that can be turned on.
- To install the Window’s approved “Windows Subsystem for Linux”, please follow the instructions from the following site;
  - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
A simpler solution (and the recommended one for this course), is to install a Bash-like CLI.
- The disadvantage of this solution is that it is not as integrated as the “Windows Subsystem for Linux”. However, for the CLI work you will do in this course, it works just fine.

To get a Bash environment, windows users should install Git. Git can be downloaded from the following link;

https://git-scm.com/download/win

After downloading the program, right-click the install executable, and select “Run as Administrator”. (THIS IS IMPORTANT You must run as administrator to give Git Bash necessary permissions.)

Install Git as Administrator

This will install a program known as “Git”, along with one called “Git Bash”. You can now open “Git Bash”.

Git Bash

After installing either “Windows Subsystem for Linux” or “Git Bash”, you should work through the following PDF book.