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UTK Notes


Getting Started

Table of contents

Introduction

This year you’ll be programming in C++ as opposed to Java. They’re quite different languages both in terms of syntax and setup. So let’s get started with the setup!

Windows Users

For Windows users, we’ll need to install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Installing WSL

  1. Navigate to the start menu in the bottom left corner, and find the Powershell application. Right click and run as administrator.



  1. Once the shell is open, copy and enter the following line

    

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     wsl --install



  2. Once WSL is installed, restart your computer. I recommend running Ubuntu (the default Linux distribution that’s installed) and setting up your new Linux system. It should look like this



    Once started, it should prompt you to create a username/password. Once you’ve done that, you’re set!

Installing g++

Now we’ll need to install g++, which is the compiler we’ll be using to compile our C++ code in this course.

Now that you have Ubuntu opened, enter the following line



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sudo apt install g++

Note that you may need to enter y or yes when prompted during the installation process.

Final Steps

This isn’t necessary but you can test it for fun if you’d like!

Now that you’ve installed g++ on your Linux system, let’s test it out to make sure everything is working.
In your home directory, enter the following command



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vim test.cpp

Now you should be in a very barebones text editor. From here, press i and enter the following code



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#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main() {
    cout << "Hello world!\n";
    
    return 0;
}

Once all that is typed out, press esc, and type wq, then hit enter.

Now you should be back to the plain terminal screen. From here, enter the following line



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g++ -o test test.cpp

Now your program should be compiled into an executable which you can run to see the results of your code by typing



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./test

Don’t forget the . !

If it prints “Hello world!” to your screen, then you’ve set everything up correctly.

Mac Users

For Mac users, we just need to install g++ for compiling our C++ programs, but first we’ll need a couple of things

Installing Xcode Command Line Tools (g++)

  1. press CMD+SPACE and type terminal, then press enter to open the terminal.

  2. Once opened, type and enter the following line

    

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     xcode-select --install

    This will install the Xcode command line tools. It might take awhile, so sit still while it’s installing.

Once installed, you should now be able to compile C++ programs and run them. Restart the terminal application, and enter the following line



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g++ --version

If it prints a bunch of version information, then you’ve successfully installed g++!

Note

Although it appears you’ve installed g++, the Xcode suite actually installs Clang, which is another C++ compiler. It then sets g++ to be an alias for the Clang compiler. This is most likely fine, but it might possibly compile differently than g++.