Week 1 - Monday, August 21, 2006 to Friday, August 26, 2006

The Unix Programming Environment

Comments

     Unfortunately, some students will breeze through this first week, and others will have a good bit of trouble.  The difference is whether you have had any exposure to Unix and a Command Line Programming Environment.  I expect to spend a considerable amount of time this week helping those of you who have trouble.  If you do, don't worry too much about it.  You don't really need to know very much about Unix to be able to work in this course, and other than the test at the end of the week, you will not be quizzed or graded further about Unix.  This is a class in Computer Science and Object Oriented Programming using C++.  It is not a Unix class.  I will however direct you to the very beginning of Sean Mauney's notes for his Csc 128, which is a Unix course.  You will only need to know some of what he teaches in the first week to be able to work successfully in this course.

    I will be online in the Week 1 Chat Room for this course in Angel every evening this week, Monday through Thursday, from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm.  I will check the Week 1 Chat Room, and write any replies that are necessary at least twice a day, once when I am in my office during the day, and once during the evening.  You can also telephone me when I am in my office.  You can know when I am actually in my office, because I will post on my Schedule whenever I arrive in the office.   Note that contacting me is part of the lab assignment for this week.

Topics

• Familiarization with basic Linux commands and text editing
• The command line environment
•    Commands: ls, ls -l, cd, cp, rm, mv, mkdir, rmdir
•    FTP, command line for Linux and Windows Command line
•    WS_FTP for Windows
•    PuTTY
•    telnet from anywhere
•    Linux text editors - you may use emacs,  vi, pico  or any other Linux text editor you prefer
• Compilation of your first C program using g++

Course Content

     Week 1:
     Unix Programming Environment 

Readings

    None from the text.  Deitel and Deitel does not have any compiler specific material.  Use the web pages listed in Course Content above. 

Lab Assignment

    Week 1 

Week 1 Test

    Only available Friday,  August 25th from 6:00 am to 3:00 am Saturday morning on Angel.  It will cover the following material:

    12 Questions for 4 points (remember the number of questions is rounded up, so 10 to 12 correct gets 4 points, 7 to 9 correct gets 3 points, 4 to 6 gets 2 points and 1 to 3 correct gets 1 point.  If you get none correct (ack!) or you don't take the test, you get 0 points.  Remember also that I will essentially throw out your lowest three tests during the semester by giving you full credit on them.  There are no make ups for these tests.  If you get a 0 because you did not take the test, then that test becomes one of your three lowest.  If you get four or more 0's, then the tests will start affecting your final grade significantly.

• The most important points (from my point of view as a teacher, and your point of view as a student) from my Syllabus for this course.  Yes I am going to include some questions about the Syllabus to make sure you have read it and know how the course works.
• The Linux command line environment:
•    How to connect to the Parkland Linux Computers using PuTTY
•    The basics of the Unix file system - its tree structure (similar to Windows), how paths are written, the meaning of / at the beginning of a path, and the meaning of  ~loginname.
•    The following Unix commands only: ls, ls -l, pwd, cd, cp, rm, mv, mkdir, rmdir, g++   You don't have to know any of the switches, which usually start with a dash - , except ls -l    You do have to know how to use paths and filenames with cd, rm, mv, mkdir, rmdir, g++
• Linux text editors - you may use emacs,  vi, pico  or any other Linux text editor you prefer.  I will give you the choice of answering some very basic questions for each of the three editors listed.  You only have to know one of the three, well enough to load and save a file and do simple editing including cut or copy and paste.
• Basics of compilation of a multifile C++ program using g++   (multifile is almost as easy as single file compilation).  Note: I am not going to require  make files in this class, although I highly recommend that you learn and use them.
• Generally, if you have learned enough  to successfully complete the Lab Assignment, you will do O.K. on the test.  Remember you can miss 2 of the 12 questions and still get full credit for the test.