This course is going to be very hands on.
That means we'll be doing a lot of things together step by step.
So let's not waste any time.
We're going to get started with the first steps towards building our first app.
But for that we need a few tools.
And actually the tools that we need are cursor, Node.js and git.
And I'm going to go step by step and explain why we need them.
But just keep in mind all these tools work on windows, macOS or Linux.
So no matter what computer you have, you're good to go.
I've also added helpful links and tutorials in the resources folder for this lecture, so all lectures
in the course also have additional resources that it's always a good idea to check them out to see what
they're all about.
So that will also help you get started.
Apart from this, during the course I will ask you from time to time to open something which is called
a terminal and you've never used that before.
Then where is relatively easy on Mac OS and Linux, simply search for a program called terminal, and
on windows search for a program called CMD or PowerShell, and what you should see on the screen is
something similar to what you see right now.
It may look a bit different on each system, but the idea is the same.
It is a place where we can type commands and talk directly to the computer.
And I'm going to show you in a second.
Now let's start with the first tool that we're going to use and that is NodeJS.
And this is a platform that allows us to run JavaScript on our computer.
You can think of it like an engine behind the scenes.
So we're going to use this throughout the course to actually run our code.
I highly recommend that you always go with the LTS version.
So you're going to see here download Node Inversion LTS.
But there's also a chance you already have this installed locally.
So this is why I've asked you to open a terminal.
If you're typing here command like node space dash dash version.
What you should get here is the actual version of NodeJS that is installed on your system.
So if you see this then you're good to go.
The next tool that we're going to need is actually git.
And git helps us keep track of our work and save different versions of our code, and it's going to
be super useful, and we're going to use it throughout the course.
For that reason, it's always a good idea to have it installed.
Git works in a similar way, so in a terminal you can just search for git.
And you're going to see here that I already have git installed.
So I'm already good to go from this perspective.
So the last tool that still needs to be installed is actually cursor.
This is the main tool that we're going to use in this section.
And in many parts of the course.
This is an AI powered code editor and it's currently one of the most popular ones out there.
It is based on VSCode.
So if you use VS code before cursor we're going to feel very, very similar.
So all you need to do is go to this page cursor and download cursor for your operating system.
And when you open cursor for the first time after the installation, you're going to get a few setup
questions.
Now the first one is about the language.
You can choose a non-English language that you're comfortable speaking or typing, and I will talk to
you in that language.
There's also the option to connect cursor to your terminal.
I really like to do this, but it's completely optional for you, so feel free to skip ahead if you
don't really care about that.
Let's go ahead and click on continue.
Now, I said earlier that cursor is based on VSCode and we can use VSCode extensions.
I'm just going to select here start from scratch because I don't want to clutter cursor with any other
extensions I might have.
Then we're also going to be asked about privacy.
Now personally, I don't want to share my private code with cursor, so I'm just going to select privacy
mode.
Now we're not done with the entire setup process because this is the fun part.
To actually use cursor.
We also need an account.
If you don't already have an account, simply click on Sign up and follow the steps.
It is relatively quickly and you don't need a credit card.
And once you log in, the browser will connect your local cursor installation with your cursor account.
And that's pretty much it.
And when you open cursor for the first time, then after login, it should look something like this.
It can be confusing in the beginning for a lot of people.
So do look for those small buttons right in the top right corner.
These are used to open and close different panels, so just try them out a bit and see exactly what's
happening there.
Before we conclude this lecture, a quick note on pricing.
While Node.js and Git are completely free, if you look at a cursor page and click on pricing, you're
going to see here that there are different plans available.
So now we have started with the free plan.
We haven't provided any payment.
And actually with the free plan at the time of this recording, we are getting a two week pro trial.
So the pro trial is the one here in the middle and the free plan is working fine, but it does have
some limits.
So definitely the Pro plan is a much better plan.
But also later in the course we're going to take a look and see how we can use cursor at a lower cost.
But for now, enjoy the free plan.
Just keep in mind it's not going to be like this forever.
So I think that's it.
We have all the tools that we need.
So let's get started.