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Getting no where !

Now i remember why i stopped using tree house, tried to get on from css and take the Sass course, but you need ruby which might be a problem on windows, so i try html 5 game but need python and git, ok so take the git BASICS course and they recommend taking the consoles course and then that turns out to be good for every system but windows, going round in circles, anyone know of another console course ?

2 Answers

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

This really isn't treehouses fault, this is a fact that we all have to deal with in real life.

Treehouse has a couple solutions to help. I believe the console foundation course comes with a console emulator you can launch and use. You could also use the console in workspaces to follow along.

You could also use a free account over on Cloud9 to use the console, and multiple other types of environments you can set up. You can also use workspaces similarly.

You could also install VirtualBox on your windows machine, than create a new box and install ubuntu on that. Than you'd have a console that would function as you'd expect from the lessons. This is also a great option for developing in multiple environments; ruby included, and it's what I use on a windows computer at work. I followed this tutorial and got it to work. Took about 2 hours. http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/virtualbox

There is unfortunately no silver platter here if you're on windows. You're going to have to be prepared to get dirty and start fixing errors that happen when you try to follow along on windows. The good news is you'll learn a ton in the process, you just need patience, determination, and there is always the forum to help.

Hey thanks that's very helpful, just seem to keep hitting obstacles on every course, before I started trying to learn to programme I looked around for advice on which system to use and most of the advice I got was that It was just personal preference but so far it seems that windows is not the best system to use ? Does it make sense to switch to a different system?, Or learn to use another console when Im on windows ?

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

No problem man, let me assure you that you'll hit obstacles left and right going forward. It's totally worth it though, and we're here to help.

The OS makes a huge difference. Windows just isn't ideal. It sounds like you got some poor advice. Unfortutely a different console isn't going to help one windows much.

One option I didn't mention is you could install Cygwin for your windows console, which was honesty the must difficult thing to do that I mentioned, which is why I excluded it.

My personal computer is a Macbook pro, and I have very few problems with normal development environments compared to my windows work computer. OSX is a flavor of Linux I do believe, so that would be why. If it's affordable to switch to a different system, that'll help. But the virtualbox and unbuntu is a free solution you could set up today, and it's not bad. The nice part is, if you screw something up real bad, you just delete the box, and re-set it up, and you don't actually make changes to the OS running your computer.

Let me stress windows isn't bad. It just doesn't excel at many common web development environments like the other operating systems do.

The concept of a virtual machine will be a lifesaver for you though. It is for me.

You could also try out http://codepen.io/ which has the ability to do SASS and LESS, so you don't have to worry about running any programs to compile it.

I have only been trying to learn for about six months so even just adding the environment variables seemed like a challenge but I'll try and your advice see how I get on, thanks again .