Frequently Asked Questions
What Is An Environment Variable?
For the uninitiated, environment variables can be daunting at first, but once you get the hang of them they are incredibly useful. According to the Wikipedia definition:
An environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the environment in which a process runs. For example, a running process can query the value of the TEMP environment variable to discover a suitable location to store temporary files, or the HOME or USERPROFILE variable to find the directory structure owned by the user running the process
How To Set The PATH Environment Variable?
Wikipedia defines the PATH variable as follows:
PATH is an environment variable on Unix-like operating systems, DOS, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, specifying a set of directories where executable programs are located. In general, each executing process or user session has its own PATH setting.
Change Windows PATH
Begin by pulling up the “Settings” link from the Windows 11 Start Menu:
Windows 11 Start Menu: Settings circled.
Once there, search for “Edit environment variables for your account.”
Once inside Windows 11 “Settings” search for “Edit environment variables for your account.”
This should pull up a dialog that will allow you to edit the environment variables. We want to append to the Path USER environment variable (which is DIFFERENT from the Path SYSTEM environment variable). See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4477660/what-is-the-difference-between-user-variables-and-system-variables.
Add, for example, C:\msys64\mingw64\bin to the PATH list.
Click OK (not Cancel) to save the updated PATH.
My favorite editor used to be gvim, but I like VS Code so much now that it is giving gvim a run for its money. Other editors include nano, vi, vim, emacs, sublime, and more — there are even full on IDEs like eclipse or (the aforementioned) VS Code. Here is the Wikipedia list of source code editors and here is the list of IDEs.
What Is A State Machine? What Is A Regular Expression?
See: State Machines
What Is Recursion?
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/recursion/
https://www.cs.utah.edu/~germain/PPS/Topics/recursion.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursion_(computer_science)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0NtAFf4bvU
Resume Tips For Coders
https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/why-my-resume-got-me-a-job-offer-at-google/