GCC compilation on Azure using a GUI

Question

As a part of a college project we are implementing Compiler as a Service. For this we are planning to use a Virtual Machine on Azure preferably Ubuntu or CentOS. The problem is we have no leads. How do you get the GCC compiler onto the VM in the cloud, and how do we move forward with the UI? Is there a way by which the programs if input in the UI, can be executed by the compiler on the cloud?

Answer 1

Getting GCC into the cloud VM is as easy as doing it on a local machine.

For ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

GUI's are harder. The Eclipse GUI will work great on a local machine, but can't easily be used on a cloud server.

Actually, that's not true: it'll work fine with SSH X11 forwarding (ssh -X <server>), but the performance will suck unless you're very close to the cloud datacenter.

There are two work-arounds:

1. Set up a VNC server.

2. Set up an NX proxy server.

Both are good in their own way, but I'd suggest the VNC setup will be easier.