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1.1 harris41 7: <title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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1.5 harris41 13: <p> </p>
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1.3 harris41 15: <font size="+3">
1.1 harris41 16: Questions about anything and everything
17: </font>
1.3 harris41 18: </p>
19: <p>
20: Shown below are frequently asked questions others have
21: about LON-CAPA installation and system management. For
22: a more complete FAQ, you are strongly encouraged to visit
1.5 harris41 23: </p>
24: <p align="center">
1.3 harris41 25: <font size="+2">
1.5 harris41 26: <a href="http://help.lon-capa.org/">http://help.lon-capa.org/</a>
1.1 harris41 27: </font>
28: </p>
29: <!-- preamble end -->
30: <!-- maintext start -->
1.5 harris41 31: <p><font size="+2">FAQ</font></p>
32: <blockquote>
33: <br />1. <a href="#q1">What is TtH and how do I know I have it?</a>
34: <br />2. <a href="#q2">So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation.
1.1 harris41 35: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</a>
1.5 harris41 36: <br />3. <a href="#q3">Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?</a>
37: <br />4. <a href="#q4">What kind of computer and operating will this work
1.1 harris41 38: on?</a>
1.7 harris41 39: <br />4a. <a href="#q4a">Will this work on BSD Unix?</a>
40: <br />4b. <a href="#q4b">Will this work on Mac OS X?</a>
41: <br />4c. <a href="#q4c">Will this work on an old SPARC, Solaris, SGI, NeXT, or
42: DEC machine that is collecting cobwebs in my university's technology center?</a>
1.5 harris41 43: <br />5. <a href="#q5">What does LON-CAPA stand for?</a>
44: <br />6. <a href="#q6">Who wrote this code?</a>
45: <br />7. <a href="#q7">Where is this software being used?</a>
46: <br />8. <a href="#q8">What are current plans for the installation?</a>
47: <br />9. <a href="#q9">How do I upgrade?</a>
48: <br />10. <a href="#q10">What are RPMs?</a>
49: <br />11. <a href="#q11">How do I know this will be a secure solution for
1.1 harris41 50: my users?</a>
1.5 harris41 51: <br />12. <a href="#q12">How do I contribute code?</a>
52: <br />13. <a href="#q13">Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</a>
53: <br />14. <a href="#q14">What are the costs?</a>
54: <br />15. <a href="#q15">What kind of computer do I need?</a>
55: <br />16. <a href="#q16">Where can I learn more about the technical
1.1 harris41 56: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</a>
1.5 harris41 57: <br />17. <a href="#q17">How are you similar or different to
1.1 harris41 58: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</a>
1.5 harris41 59: </blockquote>
1.7 harris41 60: <hr />1. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q1" />What is TtH and how
61: do I know I have it?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 62: <p>
63: TtH = TeX-to-HTML.
1.7 harris41 64: You should have a file called <tt>tth.so</tt> on your system. If you do not
65: have it (should be located somewhere underneath /usr/lib/perl5), then you
66: should download and install the binary
67: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/resources/tth.so">
68: http://install.lon-capa.org/resources/tth.so</a>
69: into your /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.???/ directory (5.??? corresponds
70: to the version number of your perl distribution).
1.1 harris41 71: </p>
1.7 harris41 72: <hr />2. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q2" />So I think I'm done
73: with the LON-CAPA installation.
1.1 harris41 74: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</font></font>
75: <p>
76: You will first need to set up a domain coordinator on your machine.
77: See loncapa/doc/how_to_domain_coordinator.txt in your CVS repository checkout.
78: After this, it is time to play with the interface. We do not
79: yet have a user manual, but
1.5 harris41 80: <a href="mailto:felicia@lon-capa.org">Felicia</a> is helping answer
1.1 harris41 81: questions related to the LON-CAPA web interface.
82: </p>
1.7 harris41 83: <hr />3. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q3" />Why do I have to
84: worry about choosing a "role"?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 85: <p>
86: A critical feature of the LON-CAPA interface is the idea that a user
87: must select a role before doing anything further inside the educational
88: system.
89: </p>
1.5 harris41 90: <hr />4. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q4" />What kind of
1.3 harris41 91: computer and operating will this work on?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 92: <p>
93: The operating system LON-CAPA runs on is the Linux operating
1.8 ! harris41 94: system (RedHat 7.3 is the supported linux distribution).
! 95: LON-CAPA relies on an Intel-based architecture. In order to
! 96: move beyond this state of affairs, we are beginning to develop
! 97: a BSD-based solution, as well as a set of diagnostic scripts
! 98: which should verify LON-CAPA's performance on any computer platform.
1.3 harris41 99: </p>
100: <p>
101: For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server
102: should be/have:
103: </p>
104: <ul>
105: <li>a multiprocessor machine,</li>
106: <li>a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz,</li>
107: <li>a gigabyte of memory,</li>
108: <li>and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space.</li>
109: </ul>
110: <p>
111: A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA
112: (LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine).
113: </p>
114: <p>
115: LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity
116: before a homework submission deadline. To support these critical
117: peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines
118: fit the above recommendation.
119: </p>
120: <p>
121: If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server...
1.7 harris41 122: you may want to consider more options. The design of the LON-CAPA
1.3 harris41 123: system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple
124: computer clusters. So, a simple solution for running an entire
125: college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA
126: servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server.
127: </p>
128: <p>
129: We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :)
1.1 harris41 130: </p>
1.7 harris41 131: <hr />4a. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q4a" />Will this work on
1.8 ! harris41 132: BSD?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 133: <p>
1.8 ! harris41 134: Active development has begun for supporting LON-CAPA on FreeBSD version 4.7.
1.1 harris41 135: </p>
1.7 harris41 136: <hr />4b. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q4b" />Will this work on
137: Mac OS X?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 138: <p>
1.8 ! harris41 139: No. Plans for Mac OS X involve waiting for completion of a FreeBSD version 4.7
! 140: solution, as well as allowing Mac OS X more time to mature within the freeware
! 141: community.
1.1 harris41 142: </p>
1.7 harris41 143: <hr />4c. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q4c">Will this work on
144: an old SPARC, Solaris, SGI, NeXT, or DEC machine that is collecting cobwebs in
145: my university's technology center?</font></font>
146: <p>
1.8 ! harris41 147: No. The needs for predictable performance of a LON-CAPA system cause us
! 148: to emphasize support on a restricted set of platforms. We welcome developers
! 149: who would like to create porting solutions, however based on our timeline,
! 150: you are even more strongly encouraged to help develop the actual educational
! 151: software technology seen by students and instructors.
1.7 harris41 152: </p>
153: <hr />5. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q5" />What does LON-CAPA
154: stand for?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 155: <p>
156: The Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach.
157: </p>
158: <p>
159: An eclectic variant is: Look! Our New Car Answers Pizza Appetites.
1.6 harris41 160: </p>
161: <p>
162: Or something.
1.1 harris41 163: </p>
1.7 harris41 164: <hr />6. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q6" />Who wrote this
165: code?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 166: <p>
167: This code was originally written by a group of staff and graduate assistants
168: at Michigan State University. We are now receiving software contributions
1.7 harris41 169: from several other universities. The original technical design behind the
170: project was constructed by Gerd Kortemeyer.
1.1 harris41 171: </p>
1.7 harris41 172: <hr />7. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q7" />Where is this
173: software being used?</font></font>
174: <p>
175: The existing user sites are:
176: </p>
177: <ul>
178: <li>4 high schools in Michigan</li>
179: <li>Westshore Community College and Truckee Meadows Community College</li>
180: <li>Universities in Senegal, Hungary, Germany, Canada (Simon Frasier
181: University) and Zimbabwe</li>
182: <li>Florida State University</li>
183: <li>George Washington University</li>
184: <li>Michigan State University</li>
185: <li>Ohio University</li>
186: <li>SUNY Stony Brook</li>
187: <li>Florida State University</li>
188: <li>University of Massachusetts at Amherst</li>
189: <li>University of Michigan</li>
190: <li>University of South Carolina</li>
191: <li>University of North Carolina, Greensboro</li>
192: </ul>
193: <hr />8. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q8" />What are current
194: plans for the installation?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 195: <p>
196: We have been able to run LON-CAPA on RedHat 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, Debian, and
197: Mandrake.
198: </p>
1.7 harris41 199: <hr />9. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q9" />How do I
200: upgrade?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 201: <p>
202: You must use CVS over the network.
203: Please click on the upgrade button at the top of this web page.
204: </p>
1.7 harris41 205: <hr />10. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q10" />What are
206: RPMs?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 207: <p>
208: Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands
209: for RedHat Packaging Manager software package.
210: </p>
1.7 harris41 211: <hr />11. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q11" />How do I know
212: this will be a secure solution for my users?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 213: <p>
214: LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the
1.7 harris41 215: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/docs/license/index.html">license</a>.
1.1 harris41 216: </p>
217: <p>
218: We do think our security strategy is fairly robust. Important communications
219: are encrypted and the server-client validation is instantiated in such
220: a way as to prevent any remotely conceivable kind of spoofing.
221: </p>
1.7 harris41 222: <hr />12. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q12" />How do I
223: contribute code?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 224: <p>
1.5 harris41 225: Send a diff to <a href="mailto:lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org">
1.1 harris41 226: lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org</a>. It helps if you give it context
227: with the -C option. For example,
228: </p>
229: <pre>
230: diff -u -C3 doc/build/faq.html doc/build/faq.html~ | mail lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
231: </pre>
1.5 harris41 232: <hr />13. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q13" />
1.1 harris41 233: Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</font></font>
234: <p>
1.7 harris41 235: No and hopefully never. That is not what we are about. We are about a
236: freeware-community oriented approach where the software features are directly
237: specified by the involved academic institutions and instructors.
1.1 harris41 238: </p>
1.5 harris41 239: <hr />14. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q14" />
1.1 harris41 240: What are the costs?</font></font>
241: <p>
242: Time & Money. You and/or somebody else needs the time to learn how to use
243: the LON-CAPA system. You and/or somebody else needs the money to set up and
244: maintain a working computer server(s) for your institution.
245: </p>
246: <p>
247: More importantly, if your institution wants a sound future and a
248: increased ability to configure the LON-CAPA software, we recommend
249: that you assume some responsibility for contributing code to the
250: freeware project.
251: </p>
1.5 harris41 252: <hr />15. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q15" />
1.1 harris41 253: What kind of computer do I need?</font></font>
254: <p>
1.7 harris41 255: You need a RedHat 7.3 Intel-compatible computer.
256: For more information on RedHat compatible hardware, visit
257: <a href="http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/">http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/</a>.
258: We do not currently support the SPARC, SGI, Macintosh, or other hardware
259: architectures.
1.1 harris41 260: </p>
1.5 harris41 261: <hr />16. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q16" />
1.1 harris41 262: Where can I learn more about the technical
263: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</font></font>
264: <p>
265: You will find the technical manual to be very handy; please visit
1.5 harris41 266: <a href="http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html">
1.1 harris41 267: http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html</a>.
268: </p>
1.5 harris41 269: <hr />17. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q17" />
1.1 harris41 270: How are you similar or different to
271: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</font></font>
272: <p>
1.5 harris41 273: I would suggest two major differences:
274: </p>
1.1 harris41 275: <ol>
276: <li>In LON-CAPA, the <strong>user</strong> is the fundamental data object.
277: Other educational software systems seem to focus on the <strong>virtual
278: classroom</strong> as the fundamental data object.</li>
279: <li>I look at it like this. Many strictly profit-based enterprises aim to
280: significantly please 80% of their users. LON-CAPA started out, in the
281: beginning, aiming for a much higher percentage since the whole project
282: was about doing what no one had done before.
283: </li>
284: </ol>
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