Using Tessel is just like web development. But if
you’re not familiar with web development, you might want
to take a minute or two to get comfortable with some key
tools of the trade: the command line (the “terminal”,
where you execute commands) and the text editor, where
you will work on and save your programs.
Select the operating system you are working on.
Open up the application on your computer called “Terminal” by pressing ⌘ + SPACE and typing “Terminal”.
Its dock icon looks like 
, and the terminal will look something like 
You can use the terminal to write commands to your computer (this is the “command line”). Let’s try it out!
In your terminal, type
ls
and hit enter.
The ls command, short for “list”, tells your computer to list all of the file names for the folder you’re in. Your list of files probably includes “Desktop” and “Documents”, among others.
Let’s try another command: type
cd Documents
and hit enter.
You are now in the Documents folder; cd means “change directory”. If you try ls again, you should see the contents of your Documents folder listed out. If you want to compare, open up Finder and look in Documents to see the same files.
Let’s get back to the folder we were in before: cd ..
You changed directory again! ls
to see what we have here. You’re back where you started! The .. after cd tells it to go up one folder in the directory.
Ok, now you’re a cool hacker who can use the terminal (or “console”) to write in the command line.
(If you want to learn more commands, there are a whole bunch of them here. I recommend pwd, open, mkdir, touch, mv, and cp.)
Open up the application on your computer called “Terminal” by tapping the SUPER key (Windows or Apple key, depending on your hardware) and typing “Terminal”.
Its icon looks like 
, and the terminal will look something like 
You can use the terminal to write commands to your computer (this is the “command line”). Let’s try it out!
In your terminal, type
ls
and hit enter.
The ls command, short for “list”, tells your computer to list all of the file names for the folder you’re in. Your list of files probably includes “Desktop” and “Documents”, among others.
Let’s try another command: type
cd Documents
and hit enter.
You are now in the Documents folder; cd means “change directory”. If you try ls again, you should see the contents of your Documents folder listed out. If you want to compare, open up Finder and look in Documents to see the same files.
Let’s get back to the folder we were in before: cd ..
You changed directory again! ls
to see what we have here. You’re back where you started! The .. after cd tells it to go up one folder in the directory.
Ok, now you’re a cool hacker who can use the terminal (or “console”) to write in the command line.
(If you want to learn more commands, there are a whole bunch of them here. I recommend pwd, open, mkdir, touch, mv, and cp.)
Open up the application on your computer called “Command Prompt”.
If you’re not on Windows 8, go to the start menu and type “Command Prompt”.
If you are on Windows 8+, swipe right to find “Windows System”, within which you can find “Command Prompt”.
Its icon looks like , and the application (the terminal) will look something like
You can use the terminal to write commands to your computer (this is the “command line”). Let’s try it out!
In your terminal, type
dir
and hit enter.
The dir command, short for “directory”, tells your computer to list all of the file names for the folder you’re in. Your list of files probably includes “Desktop” and “Documents”, among others. Let’s try another command:
Now type
cd Documents
into your command line and press enter.
You are now in the Documents folder; cd means “change directory”. If you try dir again, you should see the contents of your Documents folder listed out. If you want to compare, open up My Comuter and look in Documents to see the same files.
Let’s get back to the folder we were in before:
cd ..
You changed directory again!
dir
to see what we have here. You’re back where you started! The .. after cd tells it to go up one folder in the directory.
Now you’re a cool hacker who can use the terminal to write in the command line. (If you want to learn more commands, there are a whole bunch of them here.)