ABSTRACT
Although you can use any platform and language that you are comfortable with to construct and run computer simulations, Chapter 2 provides a set of standard tools if you don't have any pet ones. We start out talking about the UNIX operating system—a common one in the scientific community. After going through use of the Vi editor we then cover basic C++ coding syntax, algorithm construction, compiling and execution, complete with standard examples from math that the reader should find useful and broadly applicable. We also cover compile, linking, and execution errors and bugs, and encourage thorough practice with them. We then talk about the portability of your work to other systems, platforms, and other languages, emphasizing that the choice of platform and language are not the points of this text. As always, the reader is encouraged to think about the relevance, context, interpretation, and limitations of their work and the results generated from it.
