Installations

Question 1

What is an Integrated development environment? (IDE)

Answer 1

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development.

An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger.

Question 2

What is Linux?

Answer 2

Just like Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac OS X, Linux is an operating system.
An operating system is software that manages all of the hardware resources associated with your desktop or laptop.

To put it simply – the operating system manages the communication between your software and your hardware.

Without the operating system (often referred to as the “OS”), the software wouldn’t function.

Question 3

The OS is comprised of a number of pieces:

Answer 3

• The Bootloader
• The kernel
• Daemons
• The Shell
• Graphical Server
• Desktop Environment
• Applications

Question 4

Linux OS: Bootloader…what is this?

Answer 4

The software that manages the boot process of your computer. For most users, this will simply be a splash screen that pops up and eventually goes away to boot into the operating system.

Question 5

Linux OS: The Kernal…what is this?

Answer 5

This is the one piece of the whole that is actually called “Linux”. The kernel is the core of the system and manages the CPU, memory, and peripheral devices. The kernel is the “lowest” level of the OS.

Question 6

Linux OS: Daemojs…what is this?

Answer 6

These are background services (printing, sound, scheduling, etc) that either start up during boot, or after you log into the desktop.

Question 7

Linux OS: The Shell…what is this?

Answer 7

You’ve probably heard mention of the Linux command line. This is the shell – a command process that allows you to control the computer via commands typed into a text interface.
This is what, at one time, scared people away from Linux the most (assuming they had to learn a seemingly archaic command line structure to make Linux work). This is no longer the case.
With modern desktop Linux, there is no need to ever touch the command line.

Question 8

Linux OS: Graphical Server…what is this?

Answer 8

This is the sub-system that displays the graphics on your monitor. It is commonly referred to as the X server or just “X”.

Question 9

Linux OS: Desktop Environment…what is this?

Answer 9

This is the piece of the puzzle that the users actually interact with. There are many desktop environments to choose from (Unity, GNOME, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, KDE, XFCE, etc). Each desktop environment includes built-in applications (such as file managers, configuration tools, web browsers, games, etc).

Question 10

Linux OS: Applications…what are they?

Answer 10

Desktop environments do not offer the full array of apps. Just like Windows and Mac, Linux offers thousands upon thousands of high-quality software titles that can be easily found and installed.

Most modern Linux distributions (more on this in a moment) include App Store-like tools that centralize and simplify application installation.

For example: Ubuntu Linux has the Ubuntu Software which allows you to quickly search among the thousands of apps and install them from one centralized location.

Question 11

Linux OS: What is a “distribution?”

Answer 11

AKA “Distros”. Different “flavours” or versions for Linux that can suit many different users. These can include: Ubuntu Linux, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, Deepin, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, etc

Question 12

What is the difference between Back-End and Front-End Installations?

Answer 12

In software engineering, the terms front end and back end refer to the separation of concerns between the presentation layer (front end), and the data access layer (back end) of a piece of software, or the physical infrastructure or hardware. In the client–server model, the client is usually considered the front end and the server is usually considered the back end, even when some presentation work is actually done on the server.

Question 13

What are Back-End Installations?

Answer 13

Usuallyatching considered the server end, the “hard” end and the data acess layer.

Question 14

What are Front-End Installations?

Answer 14

Usually considered to be the client end, the “soft” end, and presentation layer.

Question 15

Why shouldn’t you use Windows to learn coding?

Answer 15

• Because many of the required scripts, programs were originally written for Linux.
• Can cause a lot of frusteration and can discourage you from learning.
• You will quickly find all sorts of troubles and misunderstandings, mismatching versions, installers etc. that you will need to constantly resolve manually. Not fun.
• Last but not least, familiarity with Linux can look great on a CV!

Question 16

What is a virtual machine?

Answer 16

Sort of like an emulator. (Like those video game ones) A virtual machine emulates another computer system.

Question 17

What is Dual Booting?

Answer 17

This essentially means when you boot up your computer you will be brought to a screen that will allow you to choose which operating system you want to use, either your Windows operating system or your new Linux operating system.

Question 18

What is Windows Subsystem for Linux?

Answer 18

• This is a fully operational Linux Bash Shell running natively on Windows.
• Used alongside Ubuntu, Kali, etc.
• If you have a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Anniversary Update build 14393 or later, another option is to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Question 19

What is an Online Integrated development environment (IDE)

Answer 19

These are similar to Virtual machines, except that they run directly in your browser.

Question 20

What is Ruby?

Answer 20

-A back-end language that is used to write server code.

Question 21

What is Git/Github?

Answer 21

• a version control system
• Github keeps repositories of your source code
• You’ll also be asked to create your Github account, which is very important because it’ll host your portfolio. When people visit your repo on Github (if it’s public), they see all the source code files you’ve uploaded.

Question 22

What is Heroku?

Answer 22

• A cloud housting service
• Where our web applications are “live”
• Sort of like Github, but Heroku actually runs that code on a server for you so your application can be visited by users.

Question 23

What is HTML, CSS and Javascript?

Answer 23

• No need to install, they come with your web browser already!
• but in later courses, you may actually start using Javascript on your computer as a server-programming language (Node.js)

Question 24

What is a text editor?

Answer 24

-Can range from a simple editor like Notepad, to a more complex editor like Sublime text or Atom

Question 25

What is Sublime text?

Answer 25

• A text editor with many handy shortcuts, highlights etc.

- Highly recomended to use instead of just a simple text editor like Notepad.

Question 26

What are Ruby Gems?

Answer 26

-There will be some Ruby gems (which are just prepackaged little libraries of code) to install to give you the tools necessary to talk to your database and install other gems easily in the future.

Question 27

What is RVM?

Answer 27

• RVM is a way of making sure that each Ruby or Rails project on your computer is treated independently of each other.
• It allows you to install multiple versions of Ruby and multiple versions of Rails or any other gem on your computer and then you can choose which set to use for a given project.

Question 28

What is Rails?

Answer 28

What about Rails? Rails is actually a Ruby gem of its own since it’s really just a bunch of Ruby code prepackaged for you. You “install” it by downloading the -rails- gem.

Question 29

What is Mac: Xcode?

Answer 29

• XCode is Apple’s integrated development environment for creating Mac, iPhone and iPad applications.
• Even though we won’t be using it for that purpose, it’s also got some command line tools that you’ll be using so you’re probably going to have to install it all (it’s a giant package).