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| ### Introduction | ||
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| The first step to building anything is having your tools laid out for you. For us that means setting up a development environment in which our code can be created. | ||
| The first step to building any website is having the right tools. For us, that means setting up an environment to write good code. | ||
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| Many development courses use online code editors or "sandboxes" which give you the tools and programs you need at that moment to accomplish the task at hand, but nothing else. While you will use some of these sandboxes throughout the early stages of The Odin Project (They're great for getting started quickly), the best way to set yourself up for success is to operate in a real development environment. We won't lie to you: installing packages, editors, and even entire operating systems can be frustrating at times. However, having the experience of setting up a development environment to run the code you'll write is an invaluable real-world skill you'll carry with you the rest of your career. | ||
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| ### What are we doing? | ||
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| In the following sections we'll be going over the necessary steps for your environment. We will be: | ||
| In the following sections we'll be going over the necessary steps for your environment. These steps are **the most important steps** in the entire curriculum. Please take the extra time to double check what you're typing, or you may cause more headache for yourself. | ||
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| * Installing or configuring the OS (Operating System) of your choice. | ||
| * Configuring your CLI (Command Line Interface) to install the necessary development tools. | ||
| * Getting Git up and running on your machine. | ||
| * Installing all the languages and frameworks you'll need for The Odin Project. These include NodeJS, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails. | ||
| * Selecting and installing a text editor. | ||
| * Creating an SSH key, a personal "password" that will identify you to GitHub, Heroku, and many other sites you'll be using. | ||
| * And finally, creating a very basic Ruby on Rails application and deploying it to Heroku to make sure it all works. | ||
| In the next few lessons we will be: | ||
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| * Installing or configuring the [OS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system) of your choice, | ||
| * Installing and configuring Git, | ||
| * Installing the necessary programming languages, | ||
| * Installing a text editor, | ||
| * Creating an SSH key (a personal "password" that will identify you to GitHub, Heroku, and many other sites you'll be using), | ||
| * And finally, creating and deploying a very basic Ruby on Rails application to make sure it all works. You will also be able to show this off to your friends and family! | ||
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| It may seem like a lot of steps, but we'll get through it as painlessly as possible together! And, if anything goes wrong, always remember the three rules of problem solving in development: | ||
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| * Read and try to understand the error message. | ||
| * Never be afraid to ask for help! | ||
| * Google, Google, Google. | ||
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| ### Options on supported OS' | ||
| ### OS Options | ||
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| The first thing we need to decide is what operating system you'll be using to develop on. We've focused on the big three: Linux (Ubuntu), MacOS and Windows. | ||
| First things first: we need to decide is what operating system you'll be using to develop on. We've focused on the big three: Linux (Ubuntu), MacOS and Windows. | ||
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| #### Woah, woah, woah. I like my OS just fine the way it is | ||
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| That's just fine! We're not asking you to get rid of what you're comfortable with using regularly. You've probably learned a lot of tips and tricks for your favorite OS and don't want to lose everything you have on your computer. But most OS' are developed with non-technical folks in mind and hide or make it difficult for a lot of the languages and frameworks we'll be using to be properly installed without a lot of modification. If they can even be installed at all. Having to work around these difficulties is what causes a lot of new developers to give up before they've even started their journey to Full Stack Nirvana. Modifying or dual booting a computer to work with the tools you'll need will make it much easier to start as a beginner, can help create a distraction free environment, and will look good on your resume. Take a deep breath and just look at your options. | ||
| That's just fine! We're not asking you to get rid of what you're comfortable with using regularly. You've probably learned a lot of tips and tricks for your favorite OS and don't want to lose everything you have on your computer. But most OS' are developed with non-technical folks in mind and hide or make it difficult for a lot of the languages and frameworks we'll be using to be installed. Having to work around these difficulties is what causes a lot of new developers to give up before they've even started their journey to Full Stack Nirvana. | ||
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| Modifying or dual booting a computer to work with the tools you'll need will make it much easier to start as a beginner, can help create a distraction free environment, and will look good on your resume. Take a deep breath and just look at your options. | ||
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| #### Mac | ||
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| If you're using a Mac you're in great shape. Most professional developers rely on Macs to code on. By just installing a few programs you will be up and running with your education in no time! | ||
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| #### Linux | ||
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| Linux is a free operating system that works well with all programming languages. Most development tools are written to work natively with Linux. Your tools will likely be updated more often, have more information available for troubleshooting, and just plain run better with Linux. We'll be focusing on the Ubuntu flavor of Linux, one of the most popular and user-friendly versions available. | ||
| Linux is a free operating system that works well with all programming languages. Most development tools are written to work natively with Linux. Your tools will likely be updated more often, have more information available for troubleshooting, and just plain run better with Linux. We'll be using Ubuntu, one of the most popular and user-friendly versions available. | ||
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| #### Windows 10 with Linux Subsystem | ||
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| You're probably familiar with Windows for one reason or another; for many people, it is their OS of choice. It is easy to use and comes pre-installed on most computers. Unfortunately, historically some languages, mainly Ruby, have been created with the assumption that you will be developing them on a Unix based system and have not been easily made to run on Windows or have taken a large amount of work to get running correctly. | ||
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| Lately a lot of progress has been made to make Windows a more developer friendly atmosphere. the Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL) is now available in most Windows 10 installations. You may still come across the occasional tweak that you will need to google to figure out how to make work. But for the most part, running Linux natively on WSL is a perfectly viable option. Granted, if you prefer to just stick with the tried and true, you can always go with dual booting or the virtual machine that you would use with earlier versions of Windows, but where's the adventure in that? | ||
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| #### Linux with Earlier Versions of Windows | ||
| You're probably familiar with Windows for one reason or another. For many people it is their OS of choice. It is easy to use and comes pre-installed on most computers. Unfortunately, some languages (Ruby) have been created with the assumption that you will be developing them on a Unix based system and have not been easily made to run on Windows or require a large amount of work to get running correctly. | ||
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| While some developers choose to move entirely to Linux (and you can too!) and Windows 10 is making it eaiser and easier to use Linux natively, we realize those aren't options available to all. Luckily there are two different ways you can use both Windows and Linux: | ||
| Within the last few years a lot of progress has been made to make Windows a more developer friendly atmosphere. The Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL) is now available in most Windows 10 installations. You may still come across the occasional tweak that you will need to google to figure out how to make work. But for the most part, running Linux natively on WSL is a perfectly viable option. | ||
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| * Dual-Booting (Running Linux "side by side" with Windows). | ||
| * Virtual Machines (Running Linux "On top" of Windows). | ||
| #### Virtual Machines and Dual Boots | ||
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| Dual-booting is by far the preferred method for installation. It can be as easy as inserting a USB and clicking a few buttons. This method will install Linux alongside of your Windows OS, so none of your data will be lost. The benefits of dual-booting cannot be understated: You'll be allowing Linux to access the full capabilities of your hardware, have a clean and distraction free environment to do your work in, and be learning the platform used by many senior developers and servers around the world. | ||
| Before the time of WSL there were Virtual Machines and Dual Boots. Virtual Machines installations that run on top of a base OS. They're simple to install and are risk-free. If you don't like linux you can easily remove the Virtual Machine. They are a great way for new developers to get their toes' wet without spending too much time getting set up. In the long run, however, most people choose to dual boot. | ||
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| The Ubuntu flavor of Linux is meant to be as user friendly as any Windows or MacOS version with an infinite level of customization just below the surface. And with dual-booting you'll be able to restart the computer to get back to your primary OS at a moment's notice. The only downside, though _very_ small, is the chance of causing issues with your current OS. These issues are very rare and can usually be recovered from (a good solution is to create a backup first). Never fear, many people have taken this route before and by carefully following instructions you can avoid causing any problems at all. This is the preferred way to install Linux. | ||
| Dual boots give you the option to boot into Linux or Windows when your computer first starts up. The advantage to these over VMs is that the OS can use all of your computer's resources resulting in a much faster OS. There is some risk to installing a dual boot system because you're changing around your hard drive partitions, but the risk very low. Take your time and read the instructions and you'll be okay. | ||
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| Virtual Machines (VM or VMs), on the other hand,there are computers built with software instead of physical components. Using a free program like VirtualBox by Oracle you can create a functioning "computer" and install Linux. A VM allows you to access the Linux OS while still having Windows running in the background. Your computer will treat the VM like any other piece of software, something you load up when needed and close when you're done. But there are some drawbacks; VMs are not as fast as Dual-booting because your physical computer must support two Operating Systems. This can make both the VM and Windows very slow. | ||
| Dual-booting is by far the preferred method for installation if you currently use Windows. It can be as easy as inserting a USB and clicking a few buttons. The benefits of dual-booting cannot be understated: You'll be allowing Linux to access the full capabilities of your hardware, have a clean and distraction free environment to do your work in, and be learning the platform used by many senior developers and servers around the world. | ||
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| #### Online editors | ||
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| There are a variety of online code sandboxes that can be quite handy when you're away from your main system or prototyping some code before committing it. Sites such as: | ||
| There are a variety of online code sandboxes that can be quite handy when you're away from your main system or prototyping some code before committing it. Sites such as | ||
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| * [Repl.it](https://repl.it/) | ||
| * [Codepen.io](https://codepen.io/) | ||
| * [JSFiddle.net](https://jsfiddle.net/) | ||
| * [codeanywhere.com](https://codeanywhere.com/) | ||
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| Can be used to complete a small exercise or help jot out a concept you might not understand. However, you shouldn't use these sites as your main development environment. These sites can be used in the very short term until you're ready to commit to installing anything in your computer. | ||
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| #### Okay, so which OS should I REALLY use | ||
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| You should use Linux or MacOS. | ||
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| While it is possible to make Windows play nice the bottom line is that a lot of languages and packages, especially Ruby, were designed with Unix (Linux and macOS) based operating systems. [Even Microsoft is aware of this](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/premier_developer/2018/04/27/why-developers-should-install-wsl-today/) and that was part of the motivation for creating the Windows Subsystem for Linux. So if you have a current Windows 10 computer, consider activating WSL: the short learning curve will save you lots of headaches down the road. | ||
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| If you have an older Windows box, definitely either set it up for Dual Boot or use a Virtual Machine. Heck, you may find yourself using the Linux side so often you will eventually want to just get rid of Windows entirely. | ||
| can be used to complete small exercises or jot out a concept you might not understand. However, you shouldn't use these sites as your main development environment. |
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