CSE 373: Some Unix help

For projects, the official computing platforms are the machines in the MSCC lab in Thompson hall. Several of these machines are UNIX Xterms. You are under no obligation to use these machines, but becoming familiar with them may be helpful.

The good news (depending on your attitude) is that you will need to know little UNIX to complete this course. The bad news is that familiarizing yourself with UNIX will be mostly your responsibility. No lecture or tutorial can be comprehensive, and is not as effective as trying things on your own. Because of this, I've tried to compile some resources for your reference. There's probably much more on the web if you look hard enough. Of course, the best way to learn is to ask someone (classmates, TAs, etc.) who knows.

Unix help

• The Math Sciences Computing Center (MSCC) has some useful help pages. They also offer free tutorials at the beginning of the quarter.
• Here are some "getting started" notes from another course web page and from the top of my head:
  • Using UNIX
  • Using Emacs

    Emacs is a powerful editor that does everything and more. Its complexity, however, brought about editors like pico, which looks and acts like a stripped-down (this is a big understatement) Emacs.

    One nice feature of Emacs that you might like is C++-mode, which when enabled causes emacs to appropriately indent C++ code as you write it. This mode should automatically be enabled when you edit a .C or .cc file. If you edit a .h file, you will need to enable it manually (since Emacs will be in C-mode. To do this, type Esc x c++-mode,

  • Emacs Clip 'n' Save
  • Compiling with G++ - includes HelloWorld.C
  • Using make
  • Using GDB
• Check out the 451 tutorials at the bottom of this page.

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