Working from a MacOS machine (or Linux)

If you are using a macOS computer, you can compile and run programs on your own computer. Just like on CSE computers, you can use the Terminal program and allof the same commands to make and edit files and directories on your own computer. You can also compile programs, but you will need to install a compiler. You won’t be able to install dcc, but you can install a similar program called clang that works in much the same way.

Installing clang on macOS

To install clang, you will need to download and install Xcode from the App Store. Once it has been installed, you will need to run the Xcode Application and accept the licence terms. Once you have done this, you will be able to use the clang compiler from the Terminal application.

Installing clang or gcc on Linux

You can install the package for gcc or clang from the package manager on your computer. Both gcc and clang work the same as dcc (although the error messages you will see look different to dcc.)

Working From Windows

Sadly, working from windows is much harder. We recommend you connect to CSE via SSH or connect to CSE using VLAB.

You may want to look into installing linux into a virtual machine or install linux on your own computer. CSESoc might be able to help with this or you may want to set aside a weekend to get this up and running.

We’d probably recommend using VirtualBox if you want to install Linux inside a virtual machine. If you are new to linux, we might recommend that you start with one of the following distributions of Linux. (These ones are fairly similar to the Linux used by CSE).

We can’t help you out much if you do want to try this and you should be carful if you want to install linux on your own computer (make sure you back up everything). Both of these processes (installing on your computer or a virtual machine) can take a lot of time and will require you to do a lot of research on your own, but can be a rewarding learning experience.