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