doc/build/faq.html - view

File: [LON-CAPA] / doc / build / Attic / faq.html
Revision 1.7: download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Sat Oct 12 23:29:05 2002 UTC (21 years, 8 months ago) by harris41
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: version_0_6_2, version_0_6, HEAD

a wide range of changes--answering question 7 (what institutions are involved);
also introducing and fixing several hyperlinks; minor text changes and
improvements

1: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 2: "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> 3:  4: <html> 5: <head> 6: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></meta> 7: <title>Frequently Asked Questions</title> 8:  9:  10: </head> 11: <body bgcolor="#ffffff"> 12:  13:   14: 15: 16: Questions about anything and everything 17: 18: 19: 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 23: 24: 25: 26: <a href="http://help.lon-capa.org/">http://help.lon-capa.org/</a> 27: 28: 29:  30:  31: FAQ 32: <blockquote> 33: 1. <a href="#q1">What is TtH and how do I know I have it?</a> 34: 2. <a href="#q2">So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation. 35: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</a> 36: 3. <a href="#q3">Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?</a> 37: 4. <a href="#q4">What kind of computer and operating will this work 38: on?</a> 39: 4a. <a href="#q4a">Will this work on BSD Unix?</a> 40: 4b. <a href="#q4b">Will this work on Mac OS X?</a> 41: 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> 43: 5. <a href="#q5">What does LON-CAPA stand for?</a> 44: 6. <a href="#q6">Who wrote this code?</a> 45: 7. <a href="#q7">Where is this software being used?</a> 46: 8. <a href="#q8">What are current plans for the installation?</a> 47: 9. <a href="#q9">How do I upgrade?</a> 48: 10. <a href="#q10">What are RPMs?</a> 49: 11. <a href="#q11">How do I know this will be a secure solution for 50: my users?</a> 51: 12. <a href="#q12">How do I contribute code?</a> 52: 13. <a href="#q13">Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</a> 53: 14. <a href="#q14">What are the costs?</a> 54: 15. <a href="#q15">What kind of computer do I need?</a> 55: 16. <a href="#q16">Where can I learn more about the technical 56: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</a> 57: 17. <a href="#q17">How are you similar or different to 58: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</a> 59: </blockquote> 60: <hr />1. <a name="q1" />What is TtH and how 61: do I know I have it? 62: 63: TtH = TeX-to-HTML. 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). 71: 72: <hr />2. <a name="q2" />So I think I'm done 73: with the LON-CAPA installation. 74: Now what do I do? How do I begin? 75: 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 80: <a href="mailto:felicia@lon-capa.org">Felicia</a> is helping answer 81: questions related to the LON-CAPA web interface. 82: 83: <hr />3. <a name="q3" />Why do I have to 84: worry about choosing a "role"? 85: 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: 90: <hr />4. <a name="q4" />What kind of 91: computer and operating will this work on? 92: 93: The operating system LON-CAPA runs on is the Linux operating 94: system. LON-CAPA relies on an Intel-based architecture. 95: 96: 97: For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server 98: should be/have: 99: 100: <ul> 101: <li>a multiprocessor machine,</li> 102: <li>a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz,</li> 103: <li>a gigabyte of memory,</li> 104: <li>and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space.</li> 105: </ul> 106: 107: A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA 108: (LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine). 109: 110: 111: LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity 112: before a homework submission deadline. To support these critical 113: peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines 114: fit the above recommendation. 115: 116: 117: If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server... 118: you may want to consider more options. The design of the LON-CAPA 119: system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple 120: computer clusters. So, a simple solution for running an entire 121: college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA 122: servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server. 123: 124: 125: We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :) 126: 127: <hr />4a. <a name="q4a" />Will this work on 128: BSD Unix? 129: 130: No. 131: 132: <hr />4b. <a name="q4b" />Will this work on 133: Mac OS X? 134: 135: No. 136: 137: <hr />4c. <a name="q4c">Will this work on 138: an old SPARC, Solaris, SGI, NeXT, or DEC machine that is collecting cobwebs in 139: my university's technology center? 140: 141: No. 142: 143: <hr />5. <a name="q5" />What does LON-CAPA 144: stand for? 145: 146: The Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach. 147: 148: 149: An eclectic variant is: Look! Our New Car Answers Pizza Appetites. 150: 151: 152: Or something. 153: 154: <hr />6. <a name="q6" />Who wrote this 155: code? 156: 157: This code was originally written by a group of staff and graduate assistants 158: at Michigan State University. We are now receiving software contributions 159: from several other universities. The original technical design behind the 160: project was constructed by Gerd Kortemeyer. 161: 162: <hr />7. <a name="q7" />Where is this 163: software being used? 164: 165: The existing user sites are: 166: 167: <ul> 168: <li>4 high schools in Michigan</li> 169: <li>Westshore Community College and Truckee Meadows Community College</li> 170: <li>Universities in Senegal, Hungary, Germany, Canada (Simon Frasier 171: University) and Zimbabwe</li> 172: <li>Florida State University</li> 173: <li>George Washington University</li> 174: <li>Michigan State University</li> 175: <li>Ohio University</li> 176: <li>SUNY Stony Brook</li> 177: <li>Florida State University</li> 178: <li>University of Massachusetts at Amherst</li> 179: <li>University of Michigan</li> 180: <li>University of South Carolina</li> 181: <li>University of North Carolina, Greensboro</li> 182: </ul> 183: <hr />8. <a name="q8" />What are current 184: plans for the installation? 185: 186: We have been able to run LON-CAPA on RedHat 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, Debian, and 187: Mandrake. 188: 189: <hr />9. <a name="q9" />How do I 190: upgrade? 191: 192: You must use CVS over the network. 193: Please click on the upgrade button at the top of this web page. 194: 195: <hr />10. <a name="q10" />What are 196: RPMs? 197: 198: Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands 199: for RedHat Packaging Manager software package. 200: 201: <hr />11. <a name="q11" />How do I know 202: this will be a secure solution for my users? 203: 204: LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the 205: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/docs/license/index.html">license</a>. 206: 207: 208: We do think our security strategy is fairly robust. Important communications 209: are encrypted and the server-client validation is instantiated in such 210: a way as to prevent any remotely conceivable kind of spoofing. 211: 212: <hr />12. <a name="q12" />How do I 213: contribute code? 214: 215: Send a diff to <a href="mailto:lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org"> 216: lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org</a>. It helps if you give it context 217: with the -C option. For example, 218: 219: <pre> 220: diff -u -C3 doc/build/faq.html doc/build/faq.html~ | mail lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org 221: </pre> 222: <hr />13. <a name="q13" /> 223: Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company? 224: 225: No and hopefully never. That is not what we are about. We are about a 226: freeware-community oriented approach where the software features are directly 227: specified by the involved academic institutions and instructors. 228: 229: <hr />14. <a name="q14" /> 230: What are the costs? 231: 232: Time & Money. You and/or somebody else needs the time to learn how to use 233: the LON-CAPA system. You and/or somebody else needs the money to set up and 234: maintain a working computer server(s) for your institution. 235: 236: 237: More importantly, if your institution wants a sound future and a 238: increased ability to configure the LON-CAPA software, we recommend 239: that you assume some responsibility for contributing code to the 240: freeware project. 241: 242: <hr />15. <a name="q15" /> 243: What kind of computer do I need? 244: 245: You need a RedHat 7.3 Intel-compatible computer. 246: For more information on RedHat compatible hardware, visit 247: <a href="http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/">http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/</a>. 248: We do not currently support the SPARC, SGI, Macintosh, or other hardware 249: architectures. 250: 251: <hr />16. <a name="q16" /> 252: Where can I learn more about the technical 253: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project? 254: 255: You will find the technical manual to be very handy; please visit 256: <a href="http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html"> 257: http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html</a>. 258: 259: <hr />17. <a name="q17" /> 260: How are you similar or different to 261: WebCT, Blackboard, etc? 262: 263: I would suggest two major differences: 264: 265: <ol> 266: <li>In LON-CAPA, the user is the fundamental data object. 267: Other educational software systems seem to focus on the virtual 268: classroom as the fundamental data object.</li> 269: <li>I look at it like this. Many strictly profit-based enterprises aim to 270: significantly please 80% of their users. LON-CAPA started out, in the 271: beginning, aiming for a much higher percentage since the whole project 272: was about doing what no one had done before. 273: </li> 274: </ol> 275:  276:  277: </body> 278: </html>