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Lab 1: Linux and Python

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Most people interact with their computers through a graphical user interface because it is intuitive and easy to learn. Many computer scientists, however, prefer to use the command line interface because it's faster once you learn to use it. In this activity you will set up your home directory to keep your files organized and learn how to use the command line interface.

Details

From the terminal, setup your home directory so that it looks like the following:

Note that username is your home directory, the directory that is the same name as you used to log in. The directories Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Public, Templates, and Videos already exist and you do not need to modify them. The directories cs120, labs, assignments, and lab1 do not exist, so you need to create them.

Example

$ pwd
/home/students/patsy
$ ls
Desktop    Downloads  Music     Public     Videos
Documents  cs120      Pictures  Templates
$ cd cs120
$ ls
labs  assignments
$ cd labs
$ ls
lab1

Hint

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ASCII (pronounced ass-kee) is system for encoding characters including the letters of the English alphabet, numbers, and punctuation symbols, essentially the characters you see on the keyboard. ASCII art is pictures created using only the ASCII characters. Making smiley faces for text messaging is one form of ASCII Art (^_^). They can also be much more complicated.

Details

In Emacs create a python program in a file called ascii_art.py in your lab1 directory. The program should print some ASCII art when run. The art should be more complicated than a smiley face, but does not need to be realistic like the complicated examples above. It should be multiple lines long and you should sign your names at the bottom of the drawing. You can design it yourself or do web searches for art that you can reproduce. For example if you wanted to draw a cute rabbit, you could do a Google Image Search for 'rabbit ascii art'.

Example

$ python3 ascii_art.py
( ) ( )
(>*.*<)
(") (")
By Roger the Shrubber

Hint