N.B. Be sure to have a labbook.

Files, directories, compiling

You should read the week's objectives.

In this lab you'll be introduced to the operating system, files, directories and compiling programs

An operating system is a program that manages the computer. In particular it manages the keyboard, mouse and the display. It also allows you to run programs so that you can use the computer. You will use the Operating System so frequently that you won't even know it's there (it's like the air that you breath). The computers at DCU use two operating systems, Windows and Linux (though only one at a time). On this course we will be using Linux.

Computers are used to manipulate information. Information is organised into files (a file is a collection of related information). Files can be used to store many different types of information including

  1. Images: e.g. diagrams, photographs, charts
  2. Sounds
  3. Letters
  4. Programs
  5. Other files. In this case the file is called a folder (or a directory)

In the previous lab, you learnt to create, rename, copy and delete files and directories. If you are unsure about any of that, then please revisit the lab.

Overview

In this lab, you will do two things

  1. Create, compile, run a simple program

  2. Learn more about Linux