Newbie Question: How do I get started programming in Linux?

I've been given an assignment for school, and we were supposed to set up a virtual machine and install Arch Linux to do our programming assignments. I seem to have successfully installed Arch Linux and am able to log in as a 'root'. All I am presented with is a terminal, which, I'm assuming, is enough to get started.

I've only used Ubuntu a handful of times, so only having the terminal is a bit scary for me, and basically I need someone to point me in the right direction as to how I go from logging in as only the root to writing a program that replicates files (the programming part I should be able to do, I just have no idea how to get started with only a terminal).

Thanks in advance.

Don't log in as root. Create a user account and log in under that instead. No, I'm not sure how.

You'll need a text editor and a compiler. Gcc is the most common compiler for linux; it's probably preinstalled. Type "gcc" to check whether it's on there.

I suggest emacs as a text editor. Some prefer vi, but I find that has a much steeper learning curve.

Thanks for your reply. I typed gcc and it said "-bash: gcc: command not found". I'm not sure how to install it.

Hmm....do you have yum or another package manager?

On Arch Linux site I found some info regarding the package manager http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/...ading_packages

To install gcc you probably type pacman -Ss gcc to search for available gcc versions and then pacman -S gccXXX to install the selected version. To add a non-root user you type adduser username