Working Remotely

We cannot support your personal environment because each environment may differ in ways that are outside of our control.

If you plan to use your own environment, please follow these steps:

1. Use the advice provided on these web pages to identify the appropriate tools, and how to install them.
2. Complete the Lab 1 exercises in week one and bring any questions that arise to any of the week one labs.
3. Use Piazza to seek help from others in the class.
4. Seek help from your tutor during your scheduled lab.
5. Seek help from your lecturer via Piazza or before and after lectures.
6. Seek help from the Computer Science Student’s Association (CSSA), who explicitly set out to help their members with matters such as setting up home computers.

Installing Tools

All of the software tools you need are provided as part of the standard environment in the RSCS computer labs. The tools are freely available for Linux, Windows and MacOS X, so if you wish to work on your own computer, you can easily do so. Please read the notice above before following the instructions below.

If you are using Ubuntu, you can get exactly what you need from the CECS Teaching Labs Repository.

We will do our best to support anyone using these standard tools. You are most welcome to use alternatives (such as a different IDE, etc), but you should not expect any support when you run into trouble using non-standard tools. For that reason, we strongly recommend that you stick to the supported tools unless you are quite confident in your ability to resolve any problems that may arise with non-standard tools. Furthermore, the lab tests will be conducted in the lab environment, so you will need to be proficient with the standard tools for the lab tests, regardless of which tools you choose to use at home.

Java

If you wish to develop code on your own computer, you should ensure that you have the Java Development Kit (JDK) version 13.0.2. After downloading the correct version of the JDK for your platform:

• Unzip/untar/install the JDK to an appropriate location, e.g.
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\AdoptOpenJDK
  • Mac: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
  • Linux: /usr/local/openjdk
• Set the PATH environment variable to include the bin directory of your JDK installation.
• Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the top-level directory of your JDK installation (on MacOS, something like /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-13.jdk/Contents/Home/)
• Verify the version of your installation by typing java -version (the output should be openjdk version "13.0.2").

IntelliJ

IntelliJ is a powerful commercial IDE. We use version 2019.3.3 of the open source ‘Community Edition’, and at home you may either get a free student license to use the ‘Ultimate Edition’, or else use the open-source ‘Community Edition’. (There is no significant difference as far as this course is concerned; the Community Edition is perfectly adequate). JetBrains has extensive online documentation, including some great video tutorials. We strongly recommend you start with their introductory video on Running IntelliJ IDEA for the First Time. The introduction to using version control systems in IntelliJ is also very helpful.

IntelliJ for the first time you will be asked to configure the Java SDK. The Java SDK’s location will be machine-specific. Typically on MacOS you will find it at /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-13.jdk/. On Windows it will most likely be C:\Program Files\AdoptOpenJDK\jdk-13.0.2.8-hotspot, or C:\Program Files (x86)\AdoptOpenJDK\jdk-13.0.2.8-hotspot. If you can’t see it in those places, try using the file finder of your operating system to search for jdk-13 or jdk13.

If you did not set up the SDK when you first started IntelliJ (perhaps because you were setting it up for Haskell), you can set it up after the fact by navigating from File -> Project Structure... select the Project tab under Project Settings, and then select Project SDK. Navigate to the location of your Java installation (as per the paragraph above).

JavaFX

From JDK 11 onward, JavaFX is no longer included as a standard part of the JDK and must be installed as a separate module. After downloading a version of the JavaFX Software Development Kit for your platform (the version number must match the JDK version, i.e. 13.0.2):

• Unzip the JavaFX SDK to an appropriate location, e.g.
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\Java
  • Mac: /Library/Java/
  • Linux: /usr/local
• Set the PATH_TO_FX environment variable to point to the lib directory of your JavaFX installation, e.g.:
  • Windows: C:\Program Files\Java\javafx-sdk-13.0.2\lib
  • Mac: /Library/Java/javafx-sdk-13.0.2/lib
  • Linux: /usr/local/openjfx/lib
• Verify your JavaFX installation by compiling and running the HelloFX example as described in the OpenJFK installation instructions.
• In IntelliJ, set a path variable to point to your JavaFX installation directory. Select File -> Settings... -> Appearance and Behavior -> Path Variables and then add a new path variable (select the plus sign) with name PATH_TO_FX and value equal to the path to your JavaFX installation lib directory e.g. on Windows: C:\Program Files\Java\javafx-sdk-13.0.2\lib.

Git

We use GitLab and Git. For this to work, you must have Git installed on your computer. You should find this already installed on most MacOS and Unix platforms (type git --version at the command line to check). However, you will most likely need to install it yourself if you’re using Windows. Follow the instructions on the Git downloads page. If you run into trouble using Git from within IntelliJ on Windows, select File -> Settings -> Version Control -> Git, then manually set the Path to Git executable (should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd\git.exe)).