Well it will only run with ./conversion if you are in the same directory as the executable. If instead your executable is in ~/blah, and when you start your console you are in ~, you can type blah/conversion of ~/blah/conversion.

Or... you can always copy it over to one of the paths in the PATH variable and just type conversion. (Type echo $PATH to see your current path. And you can also add that as well if you want. e.g. export PATH=$PATH:~/bin)

i wanna say the path is boxerboy/home/projects if i open my home folders there is a folder called projects in there thats wherre i put them. im assuming thats right path. not real sure what the ~ is. if you can please give me an example with the path i have shown. i have been studing the file system but i still get lost in it easy. i blame M$ for that with their point nad click file system. but i guess its my fault for no learning sooner.

Heheh, well. ~ is a special character that expands to your home directory. (Usually something like /home/username)

If say your home is /home/boxerboy and you have the conversion in your projects folder, you can do any of the following:

/home/boxerboy/projects/conversion (This works no matter what your current directory is)

projects/conversion (This works if your current directory is /home/boxerboy)

./conversion (If your current directory is /home/boxerboy/projects/)

Some other commands you might find useful:
pwd (prints the current working directory)
cd (changes to a directory e.g. cd projects, cd /home/boxerboy/projects)
ls (list contents of directory)

The following are common shortcut symbols for paths
. (Current directory)
.. (Up one directory)
~ (Your home directory)
~username (username's home directory)

thank you that is very helpful.