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Getting started

There are two ways you can configure your development environment.

A. Using Gitpod​

The first is to use Gitpod. Gitpod allows developers to launch ready-to-code development environments for their GitHub projects with a single click.

You have two options when setting up your coding environment with Gitpod.

  1. Here's the first option:

  • In a browser, navigate to your project in GitHub or GitLab;

  • In the browser's address bar, prefix the entire URL with gitpod.io/# and press Enter. It will create a cloud development environment and open up a workspace in VS code;

  • Install the tools required to build smart contracts in Rust. Gitpod always comes with the latest Rust toolchain pre-installed using Rust compiler rustup. Let's install a nightly version of the toolchain with rustup:

    rustup toolchain add nightly

    We'll need a Wasm compiler to compile our Rust smart contract to Wasm. Let's add it to the toolchain:

    rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly

    Now, the Gitpod environment is ready for smart contract development on Gear.

  1. Another way to get started with Gitpod is by installing the Gitpod extension available on Chrome and Firefox:

    Once you have the extension installed, a Gitpod button will show up on any Git repos:

    Gitpod Button

B. Setting up the local environment​

macOS and Linux are the most user-friendly operating systems for this course. While Windows might pose more difficulties, you can use any operating system you're comfortable with.

  1. Linux users should generally install GCC and Clang according to their distribution documentation.

    For example, if you're using Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install -y build-essential clang cmake

    On macOS, you can get a compiler toolset by running:

    xcode-select --install
    brew install cmake

  2. Install the tools required to build smart contracts in Rust. We'll use rustup to get the Rust compiler ready:

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

    Let's install a nightly version of the toolchain and a Wasm target with rustup:

    rustup toolchain add nightly
    rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly

You can now complete your environment configuration.