If you want to work on your own machine (instead of using you machine to ssh into CSIL), there are two options:

  • “Native Windows” - directly in the Windows OS and filesystem
  • On the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) - a tool that basically creates a separate Linux environment alongside your Windows environment. It’s kind of like a more lightweight VM, with access to local storage.

This page is our best effort at explaining how to set up an environment for CMPSC 156 for native windows.

For information on WSL, please see the Windows: WSL page.

Note that the reference platform for the course remains “CSIL”; we cannot commit to being “tech support” for every conceivable platform. On your own machine, you are your own tech support. But we’ll help as best we can, given the time constraints we are under.

Install git for Windows

(Note: I recommend git for windows, not “github for windows”. “git for windows” provides the “Git Bash Shell” as well as the command line git tools that we use in CMPSC 156.)

Install the JDK for Java 25.0.4

The projects in this class use Java 25.0.4 (a “long-term support” version of Java), and we strongly encourage you not to install a later or earlier version.

For native Windows, the recommended distribution is Eclipse Temurin (25.0.4-tem), which you can download from https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/?version=25&os=windows.

(On Windows, we recommend using WSL instead, where you can install Java with SDKMAN using sdk install java 25.0.4-tem.)

Install Apache Maven

The projects in this class need Maven 3.9.14 or newer.

  1. Download from here: https://maven.apache.org/download.cgi
  2. Follow installation instructions here: https://maven.apache.org/install.html

To test whether it worked, open a command line and type:

mvn --version

Check that the Maven version is 3.9.14 or newer, and that the Java version: line reports Java 25.0.4.

Install Heroku CLI

See instructions here: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-cli

Install Node/npm

Visit this page for instructions on how to install Node and npm on Windows and/or WSL.

See the “Software” link for your version of the class for advice on versions of Node, e.g.

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