If you have an internet connection one easy way to use a Windows computer to work
on COMP1511 is to connect to
If you have an internet connection another good way to use a Windows computer to work
on COMP1511 is via ssh using the program
If you won't have an internet connection available or want to try working directly on your own computer see the instructions further on for help
If you are adventurous try Linux on your Windows computer - many students in computing degrees do this eventually.
If you have an internet connection, one easy way to use a Windows computer to work
on COMP1511 is to connect to
Many COMP1511 students find PuTTY a good way to work on COMP1511 from home.
Download and install PuTTY from one of the links below:
Once you have downloaded and installed it, find and run the PuTTY
application. In the “Host Name” section, type in
your-zID@cse.unsw.edu.au (but using your actual zID instead
of your-zID).
You can then type a name such as CSE into Saved Sessions section and press the save button, so that you can use it later. (To use it later, select it from the menu and press Load).
You will then be asked to accept a connection key. You will only need to do this the first time you connect.
Then you will be asked to log in. You will need to type in your zPass. Remember that when you type your password, nothing will show on the screen.
You will then find that your terminal window is working from the CSE machines.
If you use commands like pwd, cd, and ls, you will find all of the files
that you can normally access from the CSE lab computers. You can also use all
the programs and commands you would normally find on the CSE lab computers.
Try practicing using the lab machines by creating a program with nano and
compiling the program with dcc before running it.
To disconnect from the CSE computer, type the exit command.
Make sure you can:
gedit example.c &and see if the window appears on your home machine
dcc
The combination of PuTTY & Xming should be sufficient to perform all COMP1511 work.
If you get a message "Error: Can't open display:" when you try to run gedit
that means Xming isn't running or you haven't in configured X11 Forwarding in PuTTY
It can be helpful to be able to create and edit files on your home machine. This will let you work without an internet connection - e.g. on a laptop on the train home.
You can download gedit for Windows.
Many other editors are available.
Many students use WinSCP to transfer files to/from CSE.
Here is a comprehensive HOWTO.
PuTTY PSCP provides similar capabilities to WinSCP.
Summary (all platforms) for transferring files to/from CSE here.
There are number of C compilers and development environment available for windows - all should be suitable to compile and test programs for COMP1511.
TDM-gcc provides a very easy to install version of gcc. You can download it here.
After you have installed it. Check that you can:
Once you are comfortable with Putty/Xming and/or CSE-Ubuntu, and if you are feeling ambitious, you can could try installing Wubi or a full installation of Linux in a separate partition (make sure you have backups!). CSESoc periodically has installfests where they'll assist you with installing Linux, Wubi or just PuTTY/Xming.
Yet another way to compile programs on your personal computers is to install Cygwin and WinSCP. For Cygwin, you should start by installing just the base, devel and util packages. You can install more packages later, as you need them.