• Day One - Talking to Your Computer
• Day Two - Git and GitHub Basics

Day One - Talking to Your Computer

When using applications in Windows, you mainly use a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to tell your computer what to do. While on Instagram, YouTube, Webtoons, etc., you are clicking buttons, dragging and dropping files, and using a mouse to tell these apps to give you your next reel. GUIs are straight forward, you don't have to do much more than point and click to get things done.

The Terminal is just another way to tell your computer how to do stuff. Rather than clicking and dragging, you will be using a Command Line Interface (CLI) to give your computer wizardlike spells to tell it what to do.

A terminal might look intimidating at first, but it works in a beautifully simple way.

You type a line of text, and hit enter.

The computer then does stuff, maybe prints out some text you can read-

and then starts waiting for another command.

There isn't much more to it than that.

Step 1: Starting the Terminal

To begin, let's open your terminal:

Open the Terminal by typing Terminal into your Windows search bar and clicking on the app to launch it.

When the terminal window opens, you’ll see a blinking cursor, ready to accept your commands.

Some commands you run might print out a lot of information to the terminal, while others may not print anything at all. Both are perfectly normal!

Step 2: Your First Command & Checking Your Package Manager

A package manager is a tool that simplifies installing, updating, and managing software. Instead of manually downloading and configuring each application, a package manager does this work for you.

Before installing software, we need to check that winget (Windows Package Manager) is installed and running properly.

Type the following into your terminal and press Enter:

winget --version

You should see output similar to this:

winget v1.11.400

If you encountered an error, download the latest version and try again. If you have more issues, let your instructor know.

Step 3: Installing Required Software

Below is the essential software for your course. Install each application individually using the terminal. After typing each command, press Enter and follow the default prompts for installation.

Tips:

Select "Yes" or "Accept" when prompted for User Account Control (UAC) prompts.

Install Git:

Git is a version control system that helps you track changes in your code and collaborate with others.

winget install Git.Git

Install GitHub Desktop:

GitHub Desktop is a user-friendly application that allows you to manage your GitHub repositories without using the command line (cli is nice, gui is nicer sometimes).

winget install GitHub.GitHubDesktop

Install Visual Studio Code:

Visual Studio Code is a powerful code editor that supports various programming languages and extensions.

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

Install Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition:

Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building applications on Windows. This will be our home for C and C++ development.

winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.Community

You will also need to download the extension packages for Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition.

1. Open Visual Studio Installer.

2. Click on "Modify" for Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition.

3. Under the "Workloads" tab, select the following:

   • Desktop development with C++
   • .NET desktop development
   • WinUI application development

4. Click "Modify" to install the selected workloads.

Install Docker Desktop:

Docker Desktop is a tool for building and sharing containerized applications. It allows you to run applications in isolated environments, making it easier to manage dependencies and versions.

winget install Docker.DockerDesktop

Step 4: Done!

We are done! You have successfully installed the essential software for your course using the terminal. Well done! Starting the next day, we will be using Git and GitHub to manage our code

Further Reading

• Using the Terminal (Windows)

Day Two

• Git and GitHub Basics