Assignment 2: Writing a Shell

The easiest way to set up the development environment is using VSCode configured for running a Docker environment. We have built a docker image for you in advance that contains all the necessary tools to compile, run, and debug the assignments. This docker image has been tested on Mac (intel chip), Mac (apple chip), Windows, and Linux.

Getting started

In this course, we will manage assignments and the project in repositories hosted on Github. The moment you accept an assignment on Github Classroom, you will get access to your own repository that is a clone of the original repository containing the starter code. Your clone of this repository is private by default. This means that nobody except yourself and the course staff is able to see it.

You are responsible to keep the visibility of the repository and its content private. If you change your repository’s visibility to public or make the content of your repository available to others in any way, then you make yourself vulnerable to allegations of plagiarism - with all related consequences.

Please be also aware that by accepting an homework assignment you agree on sharing your name and your LSU email address in the context of this course with Github. Please be aware that the work you turn in for this course, along with the respective student identifiers will be submitted to Github for review, for providing feedback, for performance analysis, and for grading purposes.

Here’s what to do next:

  • Open a browser and navigate to this url.
  • If asked, select your name from the list
  • Click the “Accept this assignment” button.

You should see a new page which says “You are ready to go!” The page will provide the link to your assignment 2 repo, e.g., https://github.com/hkaiserteaching/csc4103-spring2025-assignment2-your-name. Click on that link.

You will now see the homepage for your assignment 2 repo.

At this point, you’ve created a clone of the starter repository on Github.

Next, if you are working on your local machine, you’ll want to create a clone of the assignment starter repository on your local machine as well. For that step you need to have all prerequisites for this course installed on your local computer (CMake, Git, Visual Studio Code).

If you click on the blue “Open in Visual Studio Code” now, you should see VSCode open a window on your local machine with the repository cloned. Use this only if you are working based on a local installation of the prerequisites.

If you prefer working fully online using codespaces, follow the instructions here to create a new Github Codespaces instance and attach a fully online version of VSCode to it.

Open the Repository in the Docker Container

The starter repository has been set up in a way that allows to seamlessly run project in an docker environment. For this:

Next up: read about Directory Commands.