1b. System Basics

• Basic tasks
  • turning physics problems into numerical algorithms
  • turning numerical algorithms into computer programs
  • writing and running the programs
  • displaying and analyzing the results

• Associated skills: basic Linux operation
  • network access
  • ssh and scp
  • the X window system

  • shells and the command-line interface
  • files and the UNIX file system
  • input, output, pipes, redirection, and other linux tricks
  • editing files

  • some essential Linux commands

• Writing programs in C/C++ and/or python
  • C/C++ program fragments
  • Examples
    • sample program #0:   C   C++   python
    • sample program #1:   C   C++   python
    • sample program #2:   C   C++   python
  • C compilation
  • C++ compilation

• In-class exercises #1

• Graphics and printing: gnuplot and gpl. Data may be read from a file (here's an example) or piped from a running program.

• Homework #1    [Notes on Homework 1]