cs2381: Required Software

The software you need to install to work on a personal machine is:

An Editor:

• VS Code (>= 1.78) or VScodium with “Extension Pack for Java”
• Alternatives: Neovim, Emacs ( Spacemacs, Doom Emacs )

The dev tools:

• OpenJDK >= 17
• Apache Maven (>= 3.9.4)

On Linux (Mint, Ubuntu, Debian), that’s:

sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk maven

To run the test script and see how autograding will go:

• Windows: Strawberry Perl (>= 5.32 64 bit)
• Linux and Mac: Perl is probably installed by default. On Linux, a missing “Foo::Bar” is generally the “libfoo-bar-perl” package.

Other recommendations on Windows:

• Linux commands in Windows command prompt: GoW
• Just get a whole Linux on Windows: WSL with Debian or Ubuntu
• The 7-Zip archive tool might help for inspecting .tar.gz archives

Installing Maven on Windows/Mac

Maven is tricky, because it doesn’t come with an installer. Start by reading the installation instructions, and then cosider:

• You should unpack the archive outside your Downloads folder.
• You need to add the “bin” directory to your PATH environment variable.

To change your PATH, try searching for “Add directory to windows/mac/linux path”.