--- doc/build/Attic/faq.html 2002/02/13 15:04:31 1.2 +++ doc/build/Attic/faq.html 2002/05/02 01:43:10 1.5 @@ -1,51 +1,61 @@ - + + + Frequently Asked Questions - + -
  -

- - +

 

+

+ Questions about anything and everything +

+

+Shown below are frequently asked questions others have +about LON-CAPA installation and system management. For +a more complete FAQ, you are strongly encouraged to visit +

+

+ +http://help.lon-capa.org/

-
-

FAQ

- -
1. What is TtH and how do I know I have it? + +
1. What is TtH and how do I know I have it?

TtH = TeX-to-HTML. You should have a file called tth.so on your system. If you do not @@ -55,93 +65,123 @@ into your /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.???/ directory.

-
2. So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation. +
2. So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation. Now what do I do? How do I begin?

You will first need to set up a domain coordinator on your machine. See loncapa/doc/how_to_domain_coordinator.txt in your CVS repository checkout. After this, it is time to play with the interface. We do not yet have a user manual, but -Felicia is helping answer +Felicia is helping answer questions related to the LON-CAPA web interface.

-
3. Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"? +
3. Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?

A critical feature of the LON-CAPA interface is the idea that a user must select a role before doing anything further inside the educational system. -

-
4. What kind of computer and operating will this work -on? +
4. What kind of +computer and operating will this work on?

The operating system LON-CAPA runs on is the Linux operating system. LON-CAPA relies on an Intel-based architecture.

-
4a. Will this work on BSD Unix? +

+For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server +should be/have: +

+
    +
  • a multiprocessor machine,
    • +
  • a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz,
    • +
  • a gigabyte of memory,
    • +
  • and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space.
    • +
+

+A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA +(LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine). +

+

+LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity +before a homework submission deadline. To support these critical +peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines +fit the above recommendation. +

+

+If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server... +well you may want to consider more options. The design of the LON-CAPA +system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple +computer clusters. So, a simple solution for running an entire +college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA +servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server. +

+

+We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :) +

+
4a. Will this work on BSD Unix?

No.

-
4b. Will this work on Mac OS X? +
4b. Will this work on Mac OS X?

No.

-
5. What does LON-CAPA stand for? +
5. What does LON-CAPA stand for?

The Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach.

An eclectic variant is: Look! Our New Car Answers Pizza Appetites.

-
6. Who wrote this code? +
6. Who wrote this code?

This code was originally written by a group of staff and graduate assistants at Michigan State University. We are now receiving software contributions from several other universities. The technical design behind the project was constructed by Gerd Kortemeyer.

-
7. Where is this software being used? -
8. What are current plans for the installation? +
7. Where is this software being used? +
8. What are current plans for the installation?

We have been able to run LON-CAPA on RedHat 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, Debian, and Mandrake.

-
9. How do I upgrade? +
9. How do I upgrade?

You must use CVS over the network. Please click on the upgrade button at the top of this web page.

-
10. What are RPMs? +
10. What are RPMs?

Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands for RedHat Packaging Manager software package.

-
11. How do I know this will be a secure solution for +
11. How do I know this will be a secure solution for my users?

LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the -license. +license.

We do think our security strategy is fairly robust. Important communications are encrypted and the server-client validation is instantiated in such a way as to prevent any remotely conceivable kind of spoofing.

-
12. How do I contribute code? +
12. How do I contribute code?

-Send a diff to +Send a diff to lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org. It helps if you give it context with the -C option. For example, 

 diff -u -C3 doc/build/faq.html doc/build/faq.html~ | mail lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
-
13. +
13. Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?

No and hopefully never. That's not what we're about.

-
14. +
14. What are the costs?

Time & Money. You and/or somebody else needs the time to learn how to use @@ -154,25 +194,26 @@ increased ability to configure the LON-C that you assume some responsibility for contributing code to the freeware project.

-
15. +
15. What kind of computer do I need?

You need a RedHat 6.2-7.2 Intel-compatible computer. We do not currently support the SPARC and SGI hardware architectures.

-
16. +
16. Where can I learn more about the technical ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?

You will find the technical manual to be very handy; please visit - + http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html.

-
17. +
17. How are you similar or different to WebCT, Blackboard, etc?

-I would suggest two major differences +I would suggest two major differences: +

  1. In LON-CAPA, the user is the fundamental data object. Other educational software systems seem to focus on the virtual @@ -183,7 +224,7 @@ beginning, aiming for a much higher perc was about doing what no one had done before.
-

+