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Warning !!! This tutorial is currently under construction... Proceed at your own risk

Tutorial 1: “Hello World!”

The first step in any computer language has historically been the “Hello World!” example. The purpose of this exercise to focus on a simple task when setting the system up before getting into the programming complexities. Unlike traditional programming tutorials, we are going to be adding an additional step to this, so bear with us. This step provides a framework to automate the actions of compiling, running, and testing your program. This will set you up in the long run for best practices in programming. To download a complete working version of this program visit this GitHub URL https://github.com/betsalel-williamson/Programming-Tutorial/. This tutorial will not get into the details of why different coding languages look different, what variables are and so on. See the later tutorials for more details about programming in C or Python.

Now before we get into all of this I would like to share a little bit about learning in general.

Needing motivation

Unfortunately, as a programmers we need both positive motivation, (the high-fives, paychecks, feelings of accomplishment and recognition) and negative motivation (grades, deadlines, debt) to accomplish anything. These are often personal reasons and you will need to find them for yourself if you are to get into the gritty details of programming and come out with understanding. While these first two tutorials were developed to be completed in 2 hours there is no substitute for branching out, trying things on your own, and collaborating with friends if you intend to master the skill and understand how to use the language.

Next, a solid reference manual. The Internet is great for many things, but having the paper you can flip through and take with you from school to your job will be invaluable.

For example, my personal preference for programming in C is "The C Programming Language" written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. This can be picked up on Amazon for around $60. I like this best because it is very concise and avoids the pitfalls many textbooks have being wordy and losing focus of the topic. If not that, look online for Practical C Programming by Steve Oualline. For TCL, a great reference book is "The TCL Programming Language" by Ashok P. Nadkarni.

Tutorial contents

1. Setup
2. Command Line 101
3. Your First C Program

We will be able to work with this guide and all of the tutorials whether you are running Linux, Mac, or Windows. The setup instructions to install the necessary software to run your program will be different for each operating system, but once the setup is finished you will be able to run the same code and commands from all three operating systems. The version of your specific operating system will not matter (this assumes that your running a modern computer circa 2018).

One last note, it is often useful to install an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), like CLion, Visual Studio, NetBeans, or Emacs, but it is best to use only a text editor for this tutorial. If learning to program was learning to ride a bike, using an IDE is like adding gears to a bicycle. We first take the harder path, so that you understand the basics and can get along when you don’t have access or a budget to buy the fancy software.

Updates

• Jan 1, 2021 - Generated from m4 template

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