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4: <title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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1.3 ! harris41 11: <font face="helvetica">
1.1 harris41 12: <p align='center'>
1.3 ! harris41 13: <font size="+3">
1.1 harris41 14: Questions about anything and everything
15: </font>
1.3 ! harris41 16: </p>
! 17: <p>
! 18: Shown below are frequently asked questions others have
! 19: about LON-CAPA installation and system management. For
! 20: a more complete FAQ, you are strongly encouraged to visit
! 21: <br />
! 22: <font size="+2">
! 23: <a href="http://help.lon-capa.org/">http://help.lon-capa.org/</a>
1.1 harris41 24: </font>
25: </p>
1.3 ! harris41 26: </font>
1.1 harris41 27: <br />
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30: <p><font size='+2'>FAQ</font></p>
31: <ul>
32: <br />1. <a href='#q1'>What is TtH and how do I know I have it?</a>
33: <br />2. <a href='#q2'>So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation.
34: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</a>
35: <br />3. <a href='#q3'>Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?</a>
36: <br />4. <a href='#q4'>What kind of computer and operating will this work
37: on?</a>
38: <br />4a. <a href='#q4'>Will this work on BSD Unix?</a>
39: <br />4b. <a href='#q4'>Will this work on Mac OS X?</a>
40: <br />5. <a href='#q5'>What does LON-CAPA stand for?</a>
41: <br />6. <a href='#q6'>Who wrote this code?</a>
42: <br />7. <a href='#q7'>Where is this software being used?</a>
43: <br />8. <a href='#q8'>What are current plans for the installation?</a>
44: <br />9. <a href='#q9'>How do I upgrade?</a>
45: <br />10. <a href='#q10'>What are RPMs?</a>
46: <br />11. <a href='#q11'>How do I know this will be a secure solution for
47: my users?</a>
48: <br />12. <a href='#q12'>How do I contribute code?</a>
49: <br />13. <a href='#q13'>Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</a>
50: <br />14. <a href='#q14'>What are the costs?</a>
51: <br />15. <a href='#q15'>What kind of computer do I need?</a>
52: <br />16. <a href='#q16'>Where can I learn more about the technical
53: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</a>
54: <br />17. <a href='#q17'>How are you similar or different to
55: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</a>
56: </ul>
57: <hr />1. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q1' />What is TtH and how do I know I have it?</font></font>
58: <p>
59: TtH = TeX-to-HTML.
60: You should have a file called tth.so on your system. If you do not
61: have it, then you should download and install the binary
62: http://install.lon-capa.org/3.1/binaries/tth.so
63: into your
64: /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.???/ directory.
65:
66: </p>
67: <hr />2. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q2' />So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation.
68: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</font></font>
69: <p>
70: You will first need to set up a domain coordinator on your machine.
71: See loncapa/doc/how_to_domain_coordinator.txt in your CVS repository checkout.
72: After this, it is time to play with the interface. We do not
73: yet have a user manual, but
74: <a href='mailto:felicia@lon-capa.org'>Felicia</a> is helping answer
75: questions related to the LON-CAPA web interface.
76: </p>
77: <hr />3. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q3' />Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?</font></font>
78: <p>
79: A critical feature of the LON-CAPA interface is the idea that a user
80: must select a role before doing anything further inside the educational
81: system.
82: </p>
1.3 ! harris41 83: <hr />4. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />What kind of
! 84: computer and operating will this work on?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 85: <p>
86: The operating system LON-CAPA runs on is the Linux operating
87: system. LON-CAPA relies on an Intel-based architecture.
1.3 ! harris41 88: </p>
! 89: <p>
! 90: For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server
! 91: should be/have:
! 92: </p>
! 93: <ul>
! 94: <li>a multiprocessor machine,</li>
! 95: <li>a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz,</li>
! 96: <li>a gigabyte of memory,</li>
! 97: <li>and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space.</li>
! 98: </ul>
! 99: <p>
! 100: A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA
! 101: (LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine).
! 102: </p>
! 103: <p>
! 104: LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity
! 105: before a homework submission deadline. To support these critical
! 106: peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines
! 107: fit the above recommendation.
! 108: </p>
! 109: <p>
! 110: If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server...
! 111: well you may want to consider more options. The design of the LON-CAPA
! 112: system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple
! 113: computer clusters. So, a simple solution for running an entire
! 114: college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA
! 115: servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server.
! 116: </p>
! 117: <p>
! 118: We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :)
1.1 harris41 119: </p>
120: <hr />4a. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />Will this work on BSD Unix?</font></font>
121: <p>
122: No.
123: </p>
124: <hr />4b. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />Will this work on Mac OS X?</font></font>
125: <p>
126: No.
127: </p>
128: <hr />5. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q5' />What does LON-CAPA stand for?</font></font>
129: <p>
130: The Learning Online Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach.
131: </p>
132: <p>
133: An eclectic variant is: Look! Our New Car Answers Pizza Appetites.
134: </p>
135: <hr />6. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q6' />Who wrote this code?</font></font>
136: <p>
137: This code was originally written by a group of staff and graduate assistants
138: at Michigan State University. We are now receiving software contributions
139: from several other universities. The technical design behind the project
140: was constructed by Gerd Kortemeyer.
141: </p>
142: <hr />7. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q7' />Where is this software being used?</font></font>
143: <hr />8. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q8' />What are current plans for the installation?</font></font>
144: <p>
145: We have been able to run LON-CAPA on RedHat 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, Debian, and
146: Mandrake.
147: </p>
148: <hr />9. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q9' />How do I upgrade?</font></font>
149: <p>
150: You must use CVS over the network.
151: Please click on the upgrade button at the top of this web page.
152: </p>
153: <hr />10. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q10' />What are RPMs?</font></font>
154: <p>
155: Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands
156: for RedHat Packaging Manager software package.
157: </p>
158: <hr />11. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q11' />How do I know this will be a secure solution for
159: my users?</font></font>
160: <p>
161: LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the
162: <a href='http://mycrow.mph.msu.edu/docs/license/index.html'>license</a>.
163: </p>
164: <p>
165: We do think our security strategy is fairly robust. Important communications
166: are encrypted and the server-client validation is instantiated in such
167: a way as to prevent any remotely conceivable kind of spoofing.
168: </p>
169: <hr />12. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q12' />How do I contribute code?</font></font>
170: <p>
171: Send a diff to <a href='mailto:lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org'>
172: lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org</a>. It helps if you give it context
173: with the -C option. For example,
174: </p>
175: <pre>
176: diff -u -C3 doc/build/faq.html doc/build/faq.html~ | mail lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
177: </pre>
178: <hr />13. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q13' />
179: Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</font></font>
180: <p>
181: No and hopefully never. That's not what we're about.
182: </p>
183: <hr />14. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q14' />
184: What are the costs?</font></font>
185: <p>
186: Time & Money. You and/or somebody else needs the time to learn how to use
187: the LON-CAPA system. You and/or somebody else needs the money to set up and
188: maintain a working computer server(s) for your institution.
189: </p>
190: <p>
191: More importantly, if your institution wants a sound future and a
192: increased ability to configure the LON-CAPA software, we recommend
193: that you assume some responsibility for contributing code to the
194: freeware project.
195: </p>
196: <hr />15. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q15' />
197: What kind of computer do I need?</font></font>
198: <p>
199: You need a RedHat 6.2-7.2 Intel-compatible computer.
200: We do not currently support the SPARC and SGI hardware architectures.
201: </p>
202: <hr />16. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q16' />
203: Where can I learn more about the technical
204: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</font></font>
205: <p>
206: You will find the technical manual to be very handy; please visit
207: <a href='http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html'>
208: http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html</a>.
209: </p>
210: <hr />17. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q17' />
211: How are you similar or different to
212: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</font></font>
213: <p>
214: I would suggest two major differences
215: <ol>
216: <li>In LON-CAPA, the <strong>user</strong> is the fundamental data object.
217: Other educational software systems seem to focus on the <strong>virtual
218: classroom</strong> as the fundamental data object.</li>
219: <li>I look at it like this. Many strictly profit-based enterprises aim to
220: significantly please 80% of their users. LON-CAPA started out, in the
221: beginning, aiming for a much higher percentage since the whole project
222: was about doing what no one had done before.
223: </li>
224: </ol>
225: </p>
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