Some courses such as Java Programming ask students to spend a brief amount of time using a command prompt or terminal session to manually build and run code. These exercises are intended to clearly illustrate the "build" and "run" steps in the overall development cycle.
Your student may be unfamiliar with command prompts and the concept of typing text into a command line to get things done. It's easy to make mistakes when changing directories or attempting to run programs with the correct parameters. We have created the following troubleshooting guide to give students additional background and tips on using the command line successfully.
Getting Started with Command Prompts
Command prompts will only be used in a single chapter. Afterwards, students will move into a full software development environment where these steps are automated. The command-prompt exercises can be skipped if students have insufficient permissions to access the command line on your local computer.