Lesson
#1: Software Installation
This lesson covers installation of the software you need for
this course. The software should also be
useful in many of your other courses.
Please install all the following software in the order listed.
Note that there is no
audio in the Lesson #1 files except the “codelite_mac_install_more.mp4” file.
Note: It’s important to follow the
instructions provided here very precisely since otherwise it’s possible to
encounter some very strange pitfalls / errors (based on my experience with many
students). This is especially important
for an online course such as this with no human support – you don’t want to get
stuck before you even begin programming.
If you run into problems
please check the following troubleshooting guide first:
This covers typical problems students have with the
mini-course. Please look at it carefully
before asking any questions.
VLC Media Player
There are a number of instruction videos in this
course. VLC media player is required to
watch these videos.
Note if you use some
other video player or try to play the videos in your browser you may not hear
any audio.
VLC is capable of playing a wide variety of video formats
with high play back quality.
Here is a link for download of VLC (Windows, Mac OSX, and
Linux versions):
It’s recommended VLC be installed before continuing with the
rest of the lesson as there are a number of videos to follow.
Note in order to watch the videos on this web site you
should right click (two finger click on Mac) on the link of the video and
select “Save Link As …” on Google Chrome or “Download Linked File As ...” on
Safari. The file can then be opened and
played with VLC.
PDF Reader / Editor
Some notes will be provided in Adobe PDF format. Macs have a good built in PDF reader
(Preview). For Windows I highly
recommend:
Text Editor
A text editor is a very simple editor for text that normally
doesn’t have much formatting and graphics capability – the focus is on text and
programming related features. The
formatting and graphics capabilities of a full word processor actually
interferes with programing related tasks.
Most compiler software has a built in text editor, but in some cases a
separate text editor is required. For
example, online compilers typically have no capability to save files so a text
editor is needed for saving your programs.
For Windows the best text editor is Notepad++:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download
The following videos briefly show how to use and configure
Notepad++ for use with C++ programs:
http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~bwgordon/notepad++_demo.mp4
For Mac OSX the TextEdit program
available in the programs/utility folder is OK.
Note in order to watch the
videos on this web site you should right click (two finger click on Mac) on the
link of the video and select “Save Link As …” on Google Chrome or “Download
Linked File As ...” on Safari. The file
can then be opened and played with VLC.
WinRAR archiver
Note: Students should read this section and watch the
included video even if you have WinRAR (or something else) already. Incorrect usage of WinRAR is the source of
many errors in this course.
Most of the example files on this web site are placed into
folders and then zipped into WinRAR files (*.rar). WinRAR is available for Windows from the
following link:
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
-- I recommend the “WinRAR x86 (32-bit) Release” Version.
WinRAR files can also be opened with 7-Zip (choose 32-bit
version) for Windows (available on encs lab
computers): http://www.7-zip.org/
For Mac computers you can use The Unarchiver:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-unarchiver/id425424353?mt=12&ls=1
*Note: A WinRAR archive
must be “expanded” before using it.
Double clicking the *.rar file (or opening it
with WinRAR) and then double clicking the file you want inside WinRAR is not
enough. Opening a *.rar
using Windows explorer also doesn’t work.
In both cases, the files are still compressed and you can’t do much
including using them with C++ compiler software. You must “expand” the *.rar
file before compiling files inside it.
To expand a RAR file using WinRAR you can right click on it
in Windows and select “Extract to …”.
Here is a video of the process:
http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~bwgordon/winrar_demo.mp4
To view this video right click (two finger click on Mac) and
select Save Link As / Download Linked File As.
Then open the downloaded file with VLC player.
To expand a RAR file using 7-Zip first open the 7-Zip
program then select the RAR file and select “Extract”. To expand a RAR file using The Unarchiver on the Mac just double click the file.
C++ Compiler Software
The following link provides a detailed guide for how to
install C++ compiler software on your computer:
http://users.encs.concordia.ca/~bwgordon/C++_compiler_installation.html
This guide provides the best current options for Windows,
Mac OSX, and Linux.
At a bare minimum (just to get started programming quickly)
you should become familiar with one of the listed online compilers. Online compilers should also work with tablets. However, since online compilers have some
limitations it’s best to also install offline compiler software on your
computer.
Note: you don’t want to
spend too much time (more than 2 hours) on compiler software installation, so
just use an online compiler if installation of an offline compiler takes too
long.
In general, it’s very important to install offline compiler
software before the term begins if possible (so you don’t waste time during the
term), but you don’t want to spend too much time doing it.
After you have installed the software listed above you are
ready for the next lesson.