Installing Interactive Tutorials

At the ends of some sections, you’ll need to complete interactive tutorials from the aguaclara_tutorial repository; this tutorial will explain how to use them.

The Command Line

A Command Line Interface (CLI), or command line is a program in which you type and enter commands to interact with your computer. Compare this to a Graphical User Interface (GUI), which you use in nearly every other program on your computer.

Why use the command line?

To use Git and the interactive tutorials.

While there are ways to use Git in a GUI, using Git in the command line offers much more control. Furthermore, it’s much easier to transition from command line to GUI than from GUI to command line.

Using the command line is usually intimidating at first, but it doesn’t have to be! When in doubt:

  1. Read the messages that the command line is putting out.

  2. Adding --help to the end of your commands will usually show help on how to use them.

  3. If you get error messages or don’t know how to do something, search them online. Chances are that someone else has faced the same problem as you in the past!

What is my command line?

For MacOS and Linux, the command line is called Terminal.

For Windows, the command lines are called PowerShell and Command Prompt. While Command Prompt is more widely known and used, PowerShell is more powerful and uses the same commands as Terminal. For the rest of these tutorials, please use PowerShell.

Basic Commands

The command line functions much like Finder or Windows Explorer in that you can look through your computer’s files and make changes to them:

  • ls (MacOS and Linux) or dir (Windows) : lists all of the files and folders in the folder (directory) you’re currently in.

  • cd: changes the directory (folder) that you’re in. You must add one of the following options after cd:

    • subdirectory-name/: goes down into the specified subdirectory.

    • .. : goes up into the superdirectory of your current directory.

These are the only commands that you’ll need for now - if you make a mistake or need help, keep a file explorer next to your command line to make sure that you’re using the command line correctly.

Using the Interactive Tutorials

Fork the Repository

You need to first create a fork, or copy, of the original aguaclara_tutorial repository - we wouldn’t want everyone editing the same tutorials!

  1. On the original aguaclara_tutorial repository, click “Fork” and then choose your Github account.

  2. Under the green “Clone or Download” button, copy the URL.

Clone Your Repository

Now we’ll clone, or download, the repository that you just forked.

  1. Open your command line.

  2. Enter ls or dir

    • The command line starts in your “home” directory, which should contain folders like Desktop/, Documents/, Pictures/, etc.

  3. If you’d like to put the Interactive Tutorials elsewhere, use ls/dir and cd to get to your preferred directory.

  4. Enter git clone, a space, and then the URL that you copied above.

    • The command should look like git clone https://github.com/<yourusername>/aguaclara_tutorial.git

    • Git should begin downloading your aguaclara_tutorial repository to your current directory.

Congratulations, you’ve completed the Installing Software section!

Click “Next” to continue learning about Atom and Markdown.