If you want to use your own computer for following the material and doing the assignments in some of the courses (listed below) of the Computer Engineering Department of the Istanbul Technical University, you will need to set up an environment that contains the needed software packages. This document outlines your options.
The currently supported courses are:
- BLG101: Introduction to Information Systems
- BLG102: Introduction to Scientific and Engineering Computation (C)
- BLG312: Computer Operating Systems
- BLG413: System Programming
- BLG458: Functional Programming
To carry out the instructions below, you will need a "terminal emulator" program (also called a "command prompt"). All platforms provide such a program. On the Linux system described below, it's called "Xfce Terminal". On Windows, you can use the programs "cmd" or "PowerShell"; or you can install the Git version control system and use "Git Bash" (recommended).
This is the simplest and recommended method. It will work on all major operating systems and prepare a virtual Linux installation that contains all the necessary software for all of these courses.
Install VirtualBox for your operating system.
Install Vagrant for your operating system. Be careful to choose a version that is compatible with your VirtualBox version.
Download and unzip the file: https://github.com/itublg/itucs-vmimage/archive/master.zip
Change into the directory:
itucs-vmimage-masterRun the command:
vagrant up
Careful: The first time you run this command, it will download a very large amount of data from the Internet.
If you get no errors, run the following command to shut down the machine:
vagrant halt
As a result, you will obtain a virtual machine named "itucs" under VirtualBox. To use it, either start it from the VirtualBox window or run the command:
vagrant up
In the VirtualBox window, if the machine is listed as running but its window is not visible, click the "Show" button.
You can also choose to install any Ubuntu-based Linux distribution and install the necessary packages on top of it. It is still recommended that you install the distribution under VirtualBox unless you’re absolutely certain that you know what you’re doing. Another safe option would be to install to a memory stick.
After the installation, follow these steps:
Download and unzip the file: https://github.com/itublg/itucs-vmimage/archive/master.zip
Change into the directory:
itucs-vmimage-masterRun the command:
sudo sh install_base.sh
Run the command:
sudo sh install_blgNNN.sh
where
NNNis numeric part of the course code.
Install the following packages for your system (for Ubuntu, the names of the packages are given in parentheses):
All courses
- Git (
git)
BLG101
- Geany (
geany) - LibreOffice (
libreoffice) - Gimp (
gimp) - Inkscape (
inkscape) - Python (
python3)
BLG102
- GCC C++ compiler (
g++) - GNU make (
make) - cppcheck (
cppcheck) - ClangFormat (
clang-format)
BLG312
This course doesn't need any special software other than the standard tools installed for BLG102.
BLG413
In addition to the packages listed under BLG102, you also need:
BLG458
- Glasgow Haskell Compiler (
haskell-platform)
- To have Turkish (or other non-default) keyboard layout under Linux Mint XFCE, right click on the bottom panel and choose "Panel -> Add New Items... -> Keyboard Layouts". Right click on the added item (a flag) and choose "Keyboard settings". In the "Layout" tab, untick the "Use system defaults" box and under "Keyboard layout", add "Turkish" (the main item, not any of the subitems).
- Read the Connecting to eduroam document for connecting your computer to the "eduroam" network on campus.
- Check out the Using the ITU cloud storage service document for accessing your files from various devices. You will need this especially if you are using the memory stick installation.