Terminal & VS Code Cheatsheets¶
One-page survival guides for the command line — pick your operating system
Most of this course happens in a terminal and in VS Code. If you've never used a command line before, that's completely normal — these handouts give you the handful of commands you'll actually use, plus the course-specific workflow, on a single printable page.
Print one and keep it next to your laptop
Each handout is designed to fit on one page. Open the one for your OS, print it (or save as PDF from your browser), and keep it handy for the first week. After a few days the commands become muscle memory.
What every handout covers¶
- Opening a terminal the right way for your OS
- The ~10 commands you'll genuinely use (
cd,ls,pwd, …) - Survival keys — Tab completion,
Ctrl-C, command history, copy/paste - The daily course workflow — enter the Nix shell, simulate, program the board
- VS Code essentials — opening the folder, the integrated terminal, the command palette
- OS-specific quirks worth knowing up front, so they never slow you down
VS Code waveform viewers¶
You don't have to leave the editor to read your simulation output. These VS Code
extensions open .vcd/.fst dumps right in a tab — handy for quick peeks while
you iterate. GTKWave is still the primary standalone viewer for the course (see
the Toolchain Setup Guide), but any of these are great for staying
in the editor.
Install only one VCD viewer at a time
These extensions all register themselves as handlers for .vcd files. If you
install more than one, VS Code may open the wrong one (or none). Pick a
favorite and disable the others.
| Extension | Marketplace ID | Formats | Developer how-to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfer (course default) | surfer-project.surfer |
VCD, FST, GHW | Marketplace · Quick start & repo |
| VaporView | lramseyer.vaporview |
VCD, FST, GHW (FSDB w/ libs) | Marketplace · README & usage guide |
| WaveTrace | wavetrace.wavetrace |
VCD | Marketplace · wavetrace.io |
Try one in 30 seconds: install the extension, then in VS Code right-click your
dump.vcd in the Explorer → Open With… → pick the viewer. Add signals from the
netlist/scope panel and scroll to zoom.
Going deeper¶
These are quick references, not the full install instructions. For the complete, step-by-step setup (installing Nix, drivers, USB permissions, troubleshooting), see the Toolchain Setup Guide.