I want to start writing in shell script but dont know what to download

Hi everyone. I have been programming now for 2 days in college using shell script. I am nearly certain that is used in the linux operating system? would I be correct about that? anyway, what i want to do is practise writing in shell script at home to improve my skills and because i enjoy it. im using windows 7 so am i supposed to download linux in order for me to be even half way able to start programming? if so please explain how and then do i download something that looks like command prompt. sorry for being vague .. its hard to explain when i dont know what i will be doing. here is an example of what i was programming in college.
#!\bin\bash
#program to read in two numbers and add them together
#
echo " enter your first number "
read a
echo " enter your second number "
read b
echo " $a + $b = $c "
#end

THANKS TO ANYONE WHO HELPS.

Hello and Welcome.
I moved the thread here, it will get better exposure to the people you want.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeTbob

Hello and Welcome.
I moved the thread here, it will get better exposure to the people you want.

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thanks man much appreciated

There's something called Cygwin that you can install in Windows and it gives you a Linux-like interface.

Hi

Well , if you want to use linux you can have it in many different ways. You have a computer with windows 7, you could:
a) Use a live CD, many linux distributions ("brands" of linux) are available as a CD you can download, If you boot your computer with a live CD, it will start as a full linux environment without touching any of the contents of your hard drive, so once you are done , reboot your computer and you will be back into windows.
b) Install Linux in your computer, Most of these live CDs you can try, at boot , have the options of "running" linux and "installing" linux. If you select install linux, the linux will be copied or "installed" to your hard disk. During the install process you can choose from giving all the disk to linux, part windows part linux, etc. It somewhat complicated for a begginer, if you choose this option you can get more info about it.
c) Something in between is to use a virtual machine, you will need to install some software to manage these virtual machines (vmware's vmplayer is free and works fine with linux). Its a safer environment to play with linux as if you mess up something you can revert to a previous state or erase the full virtual machine and start over again.

Once you get linux running in either way, you can open a terminal emulator and start coding away ...

Good luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arespi

Hi

Well , if you want to use linux you can have it in many different ways. You have a computer with windows 7, you could:
a) Use a live CD, many linux distributions ("brands" of linux) are available as a CD you can download, If you boot your computer with a live CD, it will start as a full linux environment without touching any of the contents of your hard drive, so once you are done , reboot your computer and you will be back into windows.
b) Install Linux in your computer, Most of these live CDs you can try, at boot , have the options of "running" linux and "installing" linux. If you select install linux, the linux will be copied or "installed" to your hard disk. During the install process you can choose from giving all the disk to linux, part windows part linux, etc. It somewhat complicated for a begginer, if you choose this option you can get more info about it.
c) Something in between is to use a virtual machine, you will need to install some software to manage these virtual machines (vmware's vmplayer is free and works fine with linux). Its a safer environment to play with linux as if you mess up something you can revert to a previous state or erase the full virtual machine and start over again.

Once you get linux running in either way, you can open a terminal emulator and start coding away ...

Good luck

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wow thanks everybody i can now make a start and improve my skills. cheers to you all :)

Hi and Welcome !! :)

I would suggest you install Linux in your machine. You will get an exposure of Linux OS too. Linux installation is really easy. Windows OS will remain as it is and you will have option to boot either Linux or Windows OS at startup.
Do let us know if you plan to install Linux. We will post all installation steps here and you won't face any problem.

hi yes i would like to install linux as i have tried downloading oracle virtual machine and i got the error message " fatal could not read boot message" or something like that so i think i will try installing linux. if you be so kind as to provide me with those steps i would be very gracious as i have no knowledge whatsoever. thank you

Post your Machine's specs here.

ok
windows 7 home premium
manufacturer: acer
model: Aspire 5733
processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 370 @ 2.40GHz 2.40GHz
installed memory(RAM): 6.00 GB (5.68 GB usable)
system type: 64 bit operating system

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