Fondamenti di Informatica A 2012/2013
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Configuration
In this section you can find the instructions to get your systems correctly configured. There are two ways: configure all the software to run natively on your machine, or install and configure VirtualBox or VMWare and run the provided virtual machine, containing all the software needed. Students are encouraged to explore both the ways prior to asking the tutor for support.
Windows users
Oracle Java Development Kit 7 (JDK7)
The Oracle JDK must be manually installed. Download it from the official Oracle page, then install.
The next step is the setting of the environmental variables. There are guides online for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows XP
To test the installation, open a Command Prompt and try to run "javac".
The expected result is that you can see an help message on the command prompt. If the systems complains saying that no command or program is available or found, the installation process has gone wrong..
Microsoft decided to hide the command prompt in Windows 8. In order to open it, move the mouse towards the upper-right corner of the screen, select Search, then go to the right side of the menu - which might be initially hidden. There, you should find the command prompt. In Windows 7 and XP, go to the Start menu, select All Programs, Accessories, and you'll find the Command Prompt.
MinGW
MinGW, a contraction of Minimalist GNU for Windows, is a minimalist development environment for native Microsoft Windows applications. It is required in order to compile the C exercises in Windows environment. Download it from YouTube.
MacOS users
Java Development Kit 7 (JDK7)
The Oracle JDK 7 must be manually installed: MacOS provides Java version 6. Download it from the official Oracle page, then install. To test, open a Terminal and try to run "javac".
GCC
GCC is a C compiler, it is required in order to complete the exercises in C. It is shipped within the XTools, which can be downloaded from: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/
Linux users
Java Development Kit 7 (JDK7)
Most Linux distribution include the JDK 7 in their repositories. Both OpenJDK and Oracle JDK are perfect for this course. Installation instructions available here for Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux.
For Gentoo, icedtea7 is in the main tree. Sync emerge, then run as root: emerge dev-java/icedtea-bin && eselect java-vm set system icedtea-bin-7.
GCC
GCC is a C compiler, it is required in order to complete the exercises in C. It is available out of the box in many distributions, and can be installed in every other.
Software
In this section it's listed the software which is common to all the platforms, and that's recommended or required in order to complete successfully all the exercises..
Framework FINF-A
Small applications which allows writing and executing simple Java fragments.
Being written in Java, these applications are completely multiplatform. If you installed the JDK correctly, a double click should be enough to run the application. If you face problems, open a Terminal (or a Command Prompt, if you use Windows), cd to the folder where you placed the applications, then run java -jar frameworkFV.jar (substitute the V with F or S to run the other environments).
JEdit
JEdit is a simple but extensible and powerful text editor written in Java (and, as such, multiplatform). It can be downloaded from here. Linux users can (and should) install it from their own package manager, it is available in most distros.
Oracle VirtualBox
For those unable to install all the software of the course, there is a sideway. You can download and install VirtualBox (or VMWare Player), and import the appliance available here. It will give you a virtualized operating system based on Linux, with all the course software installed and ready for being run.