This repository contains a script to install Python (programming langue), Jupyter (Python notebooks), git (source control), Sublime Text 3 (text editor), and Atom (text editor) on an Ubuntu Linux workstation.
Type or paste the following line into a Terminal, and then press Enter.
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sd16spring/setup/master/ubuntu.sh | bash
This takes a while to complete.
If the last line of terminal output is "Success!", you're set -- return to the Get Set page for further instructions.
Otherwise, ask a NINJA for help.
You don't need to know this for SoftDev! But if you're curious about what just happened when you ran the startup script...
The startup script installs Python, Sublime Text 3, the Jupyter notebook program, and a handful of packages that extend each of these.
The commands in the startup script are the same commands you could type on the command line (just like you typed apt-get commands
to configure Linux); putting them in a script packages the commands together, and automates running them.
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sd16spring/setup/master/ubuntu.sh | ...
curl is a tiny subset of a web browser, for non-interactive command-line use.
Given an URL, it retrieves the contents of that URL.
curl ... | bash
bash is a program that implements the command line. When you type program names and file names at it, it runs those programs and opens or operates on those files.
Here, we're running another bash inside the bash you're typing at.
This inner bash reads its commands from the startup script instead of the keyboard, because:
| (pipe) separates two commands, and connects the output of the first to the input of the second.
In this case, the first command is curl (read a document from the web), and the second is bash (execute the incoming commands),
so curl ... | bash reads the document, and sends its commands to bash to execute.
Last year we gave students a longer set of commands to enter on the command line. Those instructions are here. (You don't need them if you run the setup script.) Read them for more detail about what the script is doing, or read the source of the script itself.
Three of the pieces of software that you'll be interacting with, and that the script installs and/or configures, are the operating system (Ubuntu), a programming language compiler or interpreter (Python -- it's an interpreter), and an editor (this script installs two editors -- Atom, and Sublime Text 3). The operating system manages files and memory, and runs programs (such as the programming language, and the editor). It's the interface between programs and resources, such as files, memory, and input/output devices (screens, mice, and keyboards). The programming language turns text files into operating system and machine instructions, that the operating system can run. The editor is just what you think. Formally, it's an interface between the input/output devices, and text files.
In many modern systems, the operating system, programming language, and editor can each be extended with additional packages that provide additional functionality.
Each of the operating system, programming language, and editor has its own package manager, which can download packages from the internet and install them on your development machine.
The Ubuntu package manager, apt-get, is included in its distribution.
Python's package manager is pip, and the script installs it.
Atom's package ships with Atom; there's a user interface in the GUI, and a command-line tool apm (atom package manager).
With this background, you know almost enough to read the script.
apt-get and apt-get-repository relate to the Ubuntu package manager.
apt-get-repository tells it where to look for Ubuntu packages, and apt-get tells it to install a package.
The script uses apt-get to install git, Python, and the text editors.
apt-get install python-pip installs Python and pip.
Once pip is installed, the script uses it to install Python packages.
apt-get instal atom installs Atom and apm.
Once apm is installed, the script uses it to install Atom packages.
The missing piece is sudo.
sudo before a command says to run that as the super-user.
Normally in Linux (including Ubuntu), you can't write to some parts of the file system.
This protects your operating system from typos you make on the command line (a typo can still delete a file you didn't mean to, but it's unlikely to modify your computer so it can't boot); and it protects your operating system (but not your personal files) from programs that you run.
sudo runs a command without this protection.
Provisioning a computer involves some or all of: installing and updating an operating system, installing and updating packages, and configuring the operating system and the programs that it runs. It's what you just did to create a development environment that you can use for SoftDev.
Provisioning a computer is something that comes up over and over again. You'll need to do it every time you get a new computer (unless you copy your files over); also when you configure an embedded system* for robotics or automation; also when you stand up a server.
Anything done a sufficient number of times is a candidate for automation, both for efficiency and for quality. (Once something has a few dozen steps, it's unlikely everyone who tries to follow them will hit them all every time, even in a high-functioning team.) But it's also a lot more work to automate something than just to do it. It's a judgement call when to automate something. Often the path is do it manually -> write English description -> turn pieces of the English description into code. That's what we've done here.
1 Embedded microcomputers such as Beaglebone and Raspberry Pi are basically slow laptop computers without the built-in I/O. Provisioning them will look very familiar once you've gone through this. Microcontrollers such as Arduino and PICs are sufficiently different that most of this doesn't apply.