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Introduction to Computer Science

Computer Science Department

Tools 

There are two parts to the set up. You must have BOTH of them installed for everything to work as intended. 

  1. VSCode (can be found here)
    • Installing the Coding Pack (found here) for Windows or MacOS will download VSCode AND the JDK. If you have neither VSCode or JDK on your computer, this is the easiest way to get set up. If you already have VSCode downloaded, you do not need to download the coding pack and can just install the JDK. 
  2. JDK (can be found here)
    • Please use the JDK from Oracle if you already have VSCode. If you already have installed a JDK in the past, please download VSCode separately here. and not from the coding pack.

Writing your first Java program. How to video on how to use VSCode and the command line (console).

Troubleshooting:

Please make sure you’re downloading what is appropriate for your computer (Windows or MacOS). 

> For MacOS, if you already have VSCode and JDK and you are still having trouble, try downloading the Extension Pack within VSCode which includes multiple extensions including Project Manager for Java. 

If you are having a “can’t find file” error when compiling, make sure you are running commands in the right directory. 

> Remember to use cd folderName to navigate to the right directory and cd .. to exit/back track through folders. 

Command line. The command line is a text interface to interact with the computer, it is already installed in your computer. It’s a program that takes in commands, which it passes on to the computer’s operating system to run. From the command line, you can navigate through files and folders on your computer, just as you would with a file graphic navigation interface.

Short videos on how to use basic command line commands:

VSCode has a builtin console, here is a list of commands.

iLab machines. You can remotely use the machines located in the computer science department to do your Java programs. Here is a how to video explaining how to use the iLab machines to create Java programs.  This video walks you through installing Putty on your laptop and using it to access iLab Computers.

If you have a Chromebook (and we suggest you get a laptop so you can load software, but if that Chromebook is what’s handy…) you can login to an iLab computer with just a browser window using Weblogin and Apache Guacamole.  You can do this from a browser on your laptop as well and save yourself the trouble of loading putty like we do above.