Cygwin is a Unix-like environment for Windows. It will allow
you to try out the Unix tools we have discussed in class on your
Windows computer and it will let you try out Emacs. You will
also be able to use Cygwin to access the compute server we are
using for the class.
Cygwin gives you a lot of options during installation, and the simplest
set that gives you sufficient functionality is described at
www.cygwin.com/xfree/docs/ug/setup-cygwin-x-installing.html.
Through a series of screen shots, this page walks you through what
you need to do to install Cygwin with a reasonable set of tools.
It is important that you include the X11 package that this page
alludes to. This package will allow you to run X windows, and hence
display R graphics that you generate on our compute server.
Once you have Cygwin installed, clicking on the Cygwin icon will
open a Terminal window which should function the same as the window
I had open in class. You can try out the Unix commands here.
Cygwin installs your home directory in your C: drive. Specifically,
my home directory is located at C:\cygwin\home\cocteau. You can
click through starting with "My Computer" to find this directory
and verify that you see the same files as listed by the "ls" command
in the Unix shell. If you want to try out the Unix commands given
in class on the data I presented, you should download the files
to this home directory.
If you want to kick the tires on Emacs, it's best if you start up
X windows. The page
www.cygwin.com/xfree/docs/ug/using.html.
describes several ways to do this. Once X Windows is started, typing
"emacs" in a terminal window will launch an Emacs screen that
should look bascially like the one we used in class.