How to Get to the terminal Console

To type, save and compile programs, the user has to go to the terminal console. When the user logs on into a computer on the Unix environment at Ohio University, the initial screen will look like the one shown in the figure. This is called the workspace of the system. In order to get to terminal console, the user right clicks in the workspace of the system to see a drop down menu like the one shown in the figure. When the user clicks on "Hosts", another sub-menu appears. The first option in the new sub menu is "Terminal console" or "This host". When this option is clicked, the terminal consoles pops out as a new white window.

The console would look like the figure. Using the console, users can create directories, use text editors like emacs, pico, xemacs to edit programs and manage their account on Prime. To acquaint themselves with the terminal host, users are encouraged to try some simple commands like date; to get the present date and time, cal to get the calender of the present month etc or try out a couple of commands from the UNIX manual and see how they work.


Alternatively users can also work in a shell which is like a program. The various editors, shells and compilers will be introduced in the forthcoming chapters.

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