Windows PowerShell (practice mode: nothing here touches your real computer)
Lesson 8: Where am I? (pwd)
Level 2, Talk to Your Computer: PowerShell. Read the prompt, and ask the terminal where it stands. The new word: working directory. It follows lesson 7, Level 1 test: Find the Cat. Next comes lesson 9, Look around (dir and ls).
What the lesson explains
Talk to your computer. PowerShell: the terminal on every Windows computer. Everything you made in Level 1 is still here.
A folder is a directory. The terminal always stands in one of them. folder = directory; the prompt shows where.
What you do first
Ask where you are. In the practice terminal, type pwd at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents\my-project> and the computer answers: Path / ---- / C:\Users\you\Documents\my-project.
The files on the practice computer
This lesson works in 2 folders. At the start, Documents\my-project holds images\, hello.py, notes.txt; Documents holds music\, my-project\, stories\.
You change nothing here, so lesson 9 finds the same files.
What you practise
Try it, "Ask where you are": In the practice terminal, type pwd at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents\my-project> and the computer answers: Path / ---- / C:\Users\you\Documents\my-project.
Prompt detective, "Where is the terminal?": PS C:\Users\you\Pictures> : which folder is the terminal in? The answer: "Pictures". Then: PS C:\Users\you\Documents\stories> : stories is inside which folder? The answer: "Documents". Then: In the practice terminal, type cd .. at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents\my-project>; the prompt then reads PS C:\Users\you\Documents>. Then: In the practice terminal, type pwd at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents> and the computer answers: Path / ---- / C:\Users\you\Documents.
What PlayBuddy and PlayType say
PlayType: "Welcome to Level 2! Now you talk to your computer by typing."
PlayBuddy: "Coders call a folder a directory. Same thing, fancier word!"
Help in every lesson
Everything happens on a pretend computer in your browser, so nothing touches your real files. PlayBuddy and PlayType stand beside the board, cheer you on and say when it is your turn.
A green ring shows where to click the first time. After that you do it on your own, and if you slip twice the ring comes back.
Stars
The lesson has 5 things to do. Up to one slip in ten gives three stars, up to one in four gives two, and finishing always gives at least one. Stars and progress are saved in this browser only; there is no account.
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