Using Personal Computers in CS113
C compilers are, of course, available for a variety of machines, and some of
you may wish to work on your programming assignments on your own or some
other machine.
First let me dissuade you from doing so by mentioning the following warnings:
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Most importantly, we will be making use of some extra libraries and
files. I will make these available on csa and let you know how to access
them. If you choose to use another machine, you will need to get the
appropriate files and figure out how to use them. (The libraries are
available for UNIX, Mac, and DOS machines via
ftp to
Addison-Wesley.)
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In any case, you will need to submit
from csa versions of your files which run on
csa, so you cannot avoid csa entirely.
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If you work on another machine, you are on your own. The support staff
for this course cannot be required to know how to use every type of machine,
programming environment, debugger or editor out there. If you use the
machines and software provided my the University, you will be able to ask
more questions of both staff and fellow students.
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For many of you there will be some long-term benefit in learning a little
bit about the UNIX operating system (as opposed to DOS, MAC-OS, etc.)
This is certainly the case for anyone going on in computer science or
planning to use computers associated with academic institutions, where
UNIX is VERY common.
If you do decide to use another machine, I advise the following:
- Consider working on csa remotely, i.e. via modem, rather than
actually working on your machine.
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If you work on your machine, get the libraries from Addison-Wesley
and get them installed ASAP. You will not be granted an extension on
your assignments because of problems with the libraries.
If you have difficulties, try using only the standard package.
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Give yourself at least one day to get your programs ready for use
on csa. Once everything compiles and runs correctly at home, move the
files to csa and try it there. If everything works, your done early. If
not, you have a chance to get it corrected and still get the work in on
time.
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Avoid using machine- or compiler- specific commands.
If your compiler has an option
which forces it to accept only ANSI standard programs, use that option.
- Let me know if you do this so that I can keep a list of students using
other machines. That way, I can refer students to other students if there
are any difficulties.