This page explains how best to prepare yourself and your computational environment for CS 108.

Preparing for the course

CS 108 does not assume that you have any programming experience, but it does assume a background in basic mathematics. Contact us if you have any questions about your preparedness for this course.

Setting up your computer

CS 108 assumes that your computer is configured to support all of the following:

• Things you’ll need right away:
  • Moodle - Calvin’s online orientation should have covered this tool and all the system tools required to support it.
  • Processing - Download and install the appropriate pre-release version 2.0b7 of Processing from this list:
    • Processing 2.0b7 (64-bit Windows)
    • Processing 2.0b7 (32-bit Windows)
    • Processing 2.0b7 (Mac)

    Note that you should not download any of the more recent versions of Processing found on the Processing website.

• Things you’ll need in a few weeks:
  • Java - Download and install the latest stable version of Java (e.g., Java SE 7u21 JDK).
  • Eclipse - Download and install the latest Eclipse IDE for Java ("Eclipse IDE for Java Developers").

  Eclipse comes with its own Java Runtime Environment (JRE), but to do Java development and debugging, Eclipse requires a full Java Development Kit (JDK). Thus, you should configure Eclipse to use the JDK in the Java implementation that you downloaded. Do this by:

  1. Choosing “Window”→“Preferences” and then “Java”→“Installed JREs”;
  2. “Add”ing a new “Standard VM” pointing to the JRE of your new Java JDK download (e.g., C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_13\jre);
  3. Making sure that your new JRE is selected.

  To integrate Processing and Java in Eclipse, you need to add the Processing library to your main Eclipse project as follows:

  1. Click mouse-right on your project, choose “Build Path” → “Configure Build Path...”.
  2. Choose the “Library” tab.
  3. Click “Add External JARs”.
  4. Select the core.jar file from your Processing implementation, probably installed in something like C:\Program File\processing-2.0b8\core\library\core.jar).

• Mac users can follow these Mac-specific instructions to configure Eclipse to use Processing.

There may be other tools to install; we’ll discuss them as the need arises.