0. Back up your machine
We are going to be messing with your operating system at some level so it is extremely wise to do a complete backup of your machine to an external drive right now.
Also turn off automatic updates. Operating system updates can mess with your setup. Generally, back up before doing updates so you can revert if necessary.
1. Open a unix terminal window
First figure out how to open a terminal on your system. The Carpentries Shell Training has a section that explains this
This should be easy on Linux and MacOS but a bit more complicated in Windows.
On Linux use xterm, on MacOS go to Utilities and start a Terminal.
On Windows it’s a bit more complicated as the underlying operating system is not a unix variant.
We suggest using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). That page has download instructions.
2. Learn how to use the Unix Shell
There is a nice tutorial from the Carpentries at: Unix Shell Basics.
It tells you how to start a terminal session in Windows, Mac OSX and Unix systems.
Please do that unix shell tutorial to learn about the basic command line.
3. Install an x-windows emulator
MacOS
MacOS has a Terminal app in Utilities
but you need to install XQuartz
test it out by typing
xterm &
You should get a terminal window. You can close it.
Unix
Should already have a terminal
test by doing
xterm &
Windows
See the information about Windows terminal connections.
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To do Linux locally, many people like to run an instance of Windows SubSystem for Linux. But it is non-trivial to set up.
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Alternatively, if you have access to a remote linux system through your institution you can use the Windows terminal/X-windows connections described in Windows to connect to that system and work there.
Note
You should now be ready to go for the (/computing-basics/setup.html)
Extra - Get a compiler/code editor
Although you will mainly be using python to code to begin with, most HEP code is actually C++ and it is good to have access to a C++ compiler. Bonus is that you normally get a good editor as well.
OSX
Compiler/editor: On OSX, you should install Xcode from the App store. It will take a lot of disk space. When you try to use it it will ask you to install command line tools. Do so.
Compiler/editor: Even though Xcode is what you use to compile and has an editor, many people prefer to use the Visual Studio Code application from Microsoft for editing/testing code.
You can also use vim or emacs if you are old school.
Unix
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Compiler: your compiler will be gcc
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Editor: Heck - just use vim. Or emacs, or VSCode.
Windows
Likely you should load up the full Visual Studio as it has a nice C++ compiler