Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Development Tools Console Foundations Getting Started with the Console Editing Files

K Jo
K Jo
7,283 Points
Posted by K Jo
K Jo
7,283 Points

Several questions regarding the console course...

Hi - I have several questions regarding the console course:

1) Maybe I am just new to this, but I'm not sure I see the full advantage or purpose of using a console. For instance, it seems easier to navigate the computer's built-in folder/file system and open a given file with its intended application than to navigate to it using a console and open a less legible version of it directly in the console. I know there must be a purpose, but I am just having trouble seeing when/how I would use the console.

2) What exactly is the treehouse custom console we are using for this course? Is this just a web application designed by Team Treehouse to look and act like a console? How would I otherwise access the the actual console on my Mac?

3) I am taking this as part of the Ruby on Rails track. How does this console course tie into Ruby on Rails?

Thanks in advance.

3 Answers

wuworkshop
wuworkshop
3,429 Points
wuworkshop
wuworkshop
3,429 Points

I haven't taken the Rails course on Treehouse, but I have worked with Rails. In general, when you really start to do web development professionally, you really need to get comfortable with the command line (a.k.a console, Terminal, CLI (which stands for Command Line Interface)). Just to give some examples of what I do in a console on a pretty regular basis:

  1. You can deploy your Rails app in the console to your remote web server.
  2. Use Git in the console.
  3. Connect to a remote web server using SSH in the console.
  4. Move files, delete files, rename files, etc.
  5. Start and stop my local servers.

People who really know the console commands well (which I do not include myself in that category) can do quite a number of things in the console A LOT faster than people who rely heavily on their OS's GUI.

Hope that helps.

Pearse Taggart
Pearse Taggart
22,518 Points
Pearse Taggart
Pearse Taggart
22,518 Points

Well I haven't taken the Rails course yet so I can only answer your first two questions -

Like yourself I was unsure as to why learning how to navigate the console would be useful and to be honest I didn't really get the answer until I finished the course I took afterwards on using Git. It might seem silly now but think about it as almost re-learning how to use your computer so that when you learn the more advanced techniques like Git, they will be easier to understand and make much more sense.

To answer your second questions, yes your Mac has a console just like the Treehouse one. to access it open the application 'Terminal' and it should look pretty similar to Treehouse's own. All the commands i learnt from that course seem to work anyway.

As for what the Treehouse console is I can only hazard a guess that it's some sort of instance of a virtual console running a very stripped down version Ubuntu or some other Linux kernel. I'm probably wrong though.

Hope this helps somewhat.

K Jo
K Jo
7,283 Points
K Jo
K Jo
7,283 Points

Thanks Pearse and imouto, very helpful