🖥️ Chapter 1 — Your First Terminal Commands

Welcome to your first real step into development! 🎉
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use the terminal — a powerful tool that every developer uses daily.

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🤔 What is "the terminal"?

The terminal (or "console", or "command line") is a tool where you type commands instead of clicking with your mouse.

You’ll use it to:

• navigate through folders and files,
• launch programs (like TypeScript),
• install tools and libraries,
• and run your apps.

You don't need to memorize everything. The goal is to get comfortable using it.

📘 Learn more:

• What is a terminal? (freecodecamp.org)
• Command line crash course

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🧑‍💻 Setup

You can use:

• Mac / Linux → Terminal is already available.
• Windows → Use either:
  • Windows Terminal (recommended)
  • Git Bash (comes with Git)
  • Or install Windows Subsystem for Linux (advanced)

We'll stick to basic, cross-platform commands that work everywhere.

📘 Official docs:

• Windows Terminal on learn.microsoft.com
• WSL setup guide

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📁 Basic navigation

🔹 See where you are

pwd

“pwd” = Print Working Directory

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🔹 List the contents of the current folder

ls

On Windows you can also use dir, but ls is preferred (and used everywhere).

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🔹 Move to another folder

cd foldername

To go up one level:

cd ..

To go to your home folder:

cd ~

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🔹 Create a new folder

mkdir my-first-project

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🔹 Go into that folder

cd my-first-project

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🔹 Create a file

touch hello.txt

On Windows: echo > hello.txt

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🔹 Open the folder in VS Code (if installed)

code .

You may need to install the code command in your terminal: Open VS Code → Cmd+Shift+P → Search: Install 'code' command in PATH

📘 VS Code docs:

• Set up the command line interface

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💪 Challenge

Try this mini-mission:

1. Open your terminal
2. Go to your home folder: cd ~
3. Create a folder named starter-dev
4. Inside that folder, create another folder called chapter-1
5. Enter that folder and create a file named readme.md
6. Open it in VS Code using code .

If you did it, congrats! You’ve just recreated a mini project structure using only your keyboard 🎉

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🧼 Bonus: Clean up

To delete a file:

rm readme.md

To delete a folder and all its content:

rm -rf chapter-1

⚠️ Be careful with rm -rf — it deletes without asking!

📘 Optional: Learn more bash commands

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🧠 Summary

Command	What it does
pwd	Show current directory
ls	List files in a directory
cd	Change directory
mkdir	Create a folder
touch	Create a file
rm	Delete a file
rm -rf	Delete a folder (recursive!)
code .	Open folder in VS Code (if setup)

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✅ You’re ready for the next step

You now know how to move around, create, and organize files using the terminal.

👉 Go to Chapter 2: Installing Node.js, Deno and TypeScript