Chapter 14 Linux
We will now begin transitioning to working in a C-programming environment that is used in the professional world. We will continue to use our convenient coding windows whenever possible, but there are some limitations to our coding windows, for example when it comes to working with files. While it is possible for you to install your own C-compiler on your computer it’ll be more convenient for now to simply use the C-compiler that has been installed on the Thayer School computer servers. In order to make use of this compiler we’ll have to save our source code ’on the server’, navigate to the source code, invoke the compiler and then run the code on the server. All of these steps happen automatically in our coding windows and we’ll now learn how to perform them ourselves. The Thayer School servers (and many many other servers) ’speak’ Linux, which is an operating system just like Windows or MacOS. What’s special about Linux and related operating systems is that it can accommodate many users logging onto the same server in order to perform operations there. That’s what we want since we will all be logging onto the Thayer School servers. And so the first step in this transition is an introduction to the Linux operating system.
