IITM BS - C programming lab

Software requirements

• GNU Build essentials (build tools like gcc, gdb etc.)
• Python (for data generation)
• VS Code (Primary IDE)
• Git (for version control)
• Github Account and Github CLI (Optional if you want to save your changes your github account.)

Note For Windows Users

• For windows the recommended way to follow this lab is using WSL(Windows Subsystem for Linux).
  • Installing WSL
    • Open Powershell in windows.
    • Run wsl --install. This will install a Ubuntu subsystem in windows.
    • Restart your system after the installation.

Setup and getting started

• Install VS code for your platform from here.
• Open the VS code.
• From File->Open Folder, create and open a new empty folder.
• Open Terminal in VS code ( ctrl+shift+` )
  • For windows users, open the Ubuntu terminal from the dropdown in the top right corner of the terminal called "Launch Profile...".
  • For Linux/Mac users, use your built-in or prefered shell.
• Clone either the original project repo or your fork of the repo to the current directory using git clone command in the terminal.

  git clone https://github.com/livinNector/iitm-bs-c-programming-lab .
  

  or

  git clone url_of_your_fork .
  

• Open Extensions in vscode.
  • Type @recommended in the search bar. It will show the following extensions.
  • Search and install the folowing extensions.
    • WSL (For windows users only) - This will enable opening folders in windows with vscode.
    • C/C++
    • Git Graph
• Install GNU Build Utils

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install build-essential
  

Getting used to the VS code interface

The Github CodeSpaces is like a virtual machine running on the cloud which you can access using a web browser. It is a linux system which is running on the cloud.

Here you have:

• The Explorer (Ctrl+Shift+E)- where your can see your files.
• The Terminal (Ctrl+`)- where your can run your commands like compiling and running the code.
• The Source control (Ctrl+Shift+G)- where your can commit and push your changes. (In simple terms it is like saving your version of the code)
• The Editor - where you can view and edit the contents of your files.

Explorer

You can find the Explorer in the top left corner of the codespace or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E.

Try the following:

• Create a new flie
• Create a new folder
• Delete the newly created files and folder.

Source control

Github How-Tos

• Create a Github account: Github signup
• Fork this repo: How to Fork a repo

The Git/GitHub lingo

• Git - A Source code versioning system with a command line tool.
• GitHub - A cloud service for managing source code.
• Repo(Repository) - A folder which has an inbuilt versioning system(simply speaking a folder with a .git subfolder with the version details.).
• Repo in GitHub - A repo present in the GitHub Cloud.
• Fork - A copy of a repo which is also present in GitHub.
• Clone - A copy of a repo in your local machine.
• CodeSpaces - A virtual machine with the Clone of your repo that you can access online or using visual studio code.
• Remote - The original repo in the GitHub from which you cloned the local copy.

Basic version control

• Staging - Selecting which changes to save in the local clone.
• Commiting - Saving the changes in the local clone.
• Pushing - Pushing the commits to the remote so that the changes are reflected in the GitHub.
• Pulling - Pulling the the commits from the remote to the local Clone.

Try this:

• Create a file using the explorer.
• Go to Source control Ctrl+Shift+G, Stage the changes using the "+" icon near the file name.
• Enter a commit message in the message box above the commit button.
• Click the dropdown near the commit button and click commit and push.
• Now check the GitHub repo for the changes you pushed.

Note: To revert back any uncommited changes in your code, go to source control and click the discard changes icon.

Reference:

• How to commit and push your changes to the repo

Terminal

Basic Terminal commands

• pwd - prints the current working directory
• ls - list the files in the current working directory
• cd - change the current working directory.

Compiling and running a C source file in terminal

• Use cd to go to the directory where the the file.

cd path/to/the/source/file

• Compile the Code. If you

gcc source_file.c -o source_file

• Run the Compiled executable file.

./source_file