Technical Background
Table of Contents
Command Prompt
A command prompt is a text based interface for interacting with a computer's operating system.
- MacOS X's command prompt, called Terminal, is located in Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
- Windows's command prompt, called Command Prompt (Cmd), is located in Start->Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt, and can also be opened by going to Start->Run, typing "cmd" and pressing enter. Most Windows developers install Cygwin or UnxUtils to replace or augment the blind, deaf and dumb Cmd.
- If you're using something *nix-y you're probably already familiar with some kind of *sh.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
An Integrated Development Environment, or IDE, makes developing software more convenient than a simple text editor. Many IDE's do syntax highlighting, compiling and debugging of code, as well as provide search, auto-completion and command scripting.
Personally, I use the command prompt for data munging (awk), searching (grep), python-testing (python interpreter), version controlling (svn, git) and databasing (sqlite3, mysql). For coding I used to entirely rely on Emacs. Now I do most of my coding in Eclipse with emacs key-bindings turned on. Use whatever you find efficient and enjoyable.
- Eclipse - Ganymede is the current software version; "Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers" version, which comes with web tools
- subclipse SVN
- egit (optional for now)
- PyDev
- Web Tools (optional)
- Cold Fusion (optional)
- Eclipse helpers:
- Use run configurations to replace django commands
- If you like Emacs: Go to Eclipse->Preferences->General->Key->Key Bindings and set default to Emacs; you can set your own key bindings here, too.
