Introduction to Programming

1. Download the "cygwin" package from your favorite website. For example, you can download it from VersionTracker. Cygwin gives you a linux-style command line on your Windows machine.
2. Save the program, setup.exe, somewhere you can find it if you need it later.
3. Run setup.exe (You may need to be an administrator on your machine to do this installation.)
4. There are many pages of options. For most of them you can select the defaults, but obviously read through them just to be sure.
5. When you get to a page that asks you to select a mirror site to download from, it shouldn't matter too much which one you select. Avoid websites in other countries as the downloads will be slower.
6. When you get to the "Select Packages" page, there are a number of packages you'll need to include in order to follow the tutorials on this website. Here's how to include them: First, click on the category to open up a sub-list. Then scroll down the huge long list of packages until you find the one with the correct name. The packages within a category are alphabetical, so that should help you find the ones you want. Now look in the "New" column. In this column it probably says "Skip" next to your package. If you click on "Skip" it will change to a version number. When you see the version number, that means it will install that package when you click on "Next" at the bottom. Don't click "Next" until you've set up all the packages in all the categories you want to install.
   Here are the packages I recommend:
   
   • Category: Devel
     • Package: gcc-core
     • Package: gcc-g++
     • Package: ncurses There are a bunch, install them all
     • Package: libncurses
     • Package: make
     • Package: opengl
   • Category: Editors
     • Package: nano
     • Package: vim
7. Click "Next", and the installation will start.
8. Wait. This part takes a while.
9. If the installation is successful, then you're done!
10. If the installation didn't complete, or if you forgot to select a package, just run setup.exe again -- you can select more packages, and it will only install the new stuff.

Next: Glossary