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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>
1.5 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.
1.6 ! harris41 135: </p>
! 136: <p>
! 137: Or something.
1.1 harris41 138: </p>
1.5 harris41 139: <hr />6. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q6" />Who wrote this code?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 140: <p>
141: This code was originally written by a group of staff and graduate assistants
142: at Michigan State University. We are now receiving software contributions
143: from several other universities. The technical design behind the project
144: was constructed by Gerd Kortemeyer.
145: </p>
1.5 harris41 146: <hr />7. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q7" />Where is this software being used?</font></font>
147: <hr />8. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q8" />What are current plans for the installation?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 148: <p>
149: We have been able to run LON-CAPA on RedHat 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, Debian, and
150: Mandrake.
151: </p>
1.5 harris41 152: <hr />9. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q9" />How do I upgrade?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 153: <p>
154: You must use CVS over the network.
155: Please click on the upgrade button at the top of this web page.
156: </p>
1.5 harris41 157: <hr />10. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q10" />What are RPMs?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 158: <p>
159: Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands
160: for RedHat Packaging Manager software package.
161: </p>
1.5 harris41 162: <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 163: my users?</font></font>
164: <p>
165: LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the
1.5 harris41 166: <a href="http://mycrow.mph.msu.edu/docs/license/index.html">license</a>.
1.1 harris41 167: </p>
168: <p>
169: We do think our security strategy is fairly robust. Important communications
170: are encrypted and the server-client validation is instantiated in such
171: a way as to prevent any remotely conceivable kind of spoofing.
172: </p>
1.5 harris41 173: <hr />12. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q12" />How do I contribute code?</font></font>
1.1 harris41 174: <p>
1.5 harris41 175: Send a diff to <a href="mailto:lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org">
1.1 harris41 176: lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org</a>. It helps if you give it context
177: with the -C option. For example,
178: </p>
179: <pre>
180: diff -u -C3 doc/build/faq.html doc/build/faq.html~ | mail lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
181: </pre>
1.5 harris41 182: <hr />13. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q13" />
1.1 harris41 183: Is LON-CAPA owned by any umbrella company?</font></font>
184: <p>
185: No and hopefully never. That's not what we're about.
186: </p>
1.5 harris41 187: <hr />14. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q14" />
1.1 harris41 188: What are the costs?</font></font>
189: <p>
190: Time & Money. You and/or somebody else needs the time to learn how to use
191: the LON-CAPA system. You and/or somebody else needs the money to set up and
192: maintain a working computer server(s) for your institution.
193: </p>
194: <p>
195: More importantly, if your institution wants a sound future and a
196: increased ability to configure the LON-CAPA software, we recommend
197: that you assume some responsibility for contributing code to the
198: freeware project.
199: </p>
1.5 harris41 200: <hr />15. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q15" />
1.1 harris41 201: What kind of computer do I need?</font></font>
202: <p>
203: You need a RedHat 6.2-7.2 Intel-compatible computer.
204: We do not currently support the SPARC and SGI hardware architectures.
205: </p>
1.5 harris41 206: <hr />16. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q16" />
1.1 harris41 207: Where can I learn more about the technical
208: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</font></font>
209: <p>
210: You will find the technical manual to be very handy; please visit
1.5 harris41 211: <a href="http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html">
1.1 harris41 212: http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html</a>.
213: </p>
1.5 harris41 214: <hr />17. <font color="blue"><font size="+1"><a name="q17" />
1.1 harris41 215: How are you similar or different to
216: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</font></font>
217: <p>
1.5 harris41 218: I would suggest two major differences:
219: </p>
1.1 harris41 220: <ol>
221: <li>In LON-CAPA, the <strong>user</strong> is the fundamental data object.
222: Other educational software systems seem to focus on the <strong>virtual
223: classroom</strong> as the fundamental data object.</li>
224: <li>I look at it like this. Many strictly profit-based enterprises aim to
225: significantly please 80% of their users. LON-CAPA started out, in the
226: beginning, aiming for a much higher percentage since the whole project
227: was about doing what no one had done before.
228: </li>
229: </ol>
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