Annotation of doc/build/faq.html, revision 1.4
1.4 ! harris41 1: <!-- $Id: faq.html,v 1.3 2002/04/23 12:14:44 harris41 Exp $ -->
1.1 harris41 2: <html>
3: <head>
4: <title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
5: <!-- pdfahref index.pdf -->
1.2 harris41 6: <!-- button FAQ -->
1.1 harris41 7: </head>
8: <body bgcolor='#ffffff'>
9: <!-- preamble start -->
10: <br />
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">
1.4 ! harris41 23: <center>
! 24: <a href="http://help.lon-capa.org/">http://help.lon-capa.org/</a></center>
1.1 harris41 25: </font>
26: </p>
1.3 harris41 27: </font>
1.1 harris41 28: <br />
29: <!-- preamble end -->
30: <!-- maintext start -->
31: <p><font size='+2'>FAQ</font></p>
32: <ul>
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.
35: Now what do I do? How do I begin?</a>
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
38: on?</a>
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
48: my users?</a>
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
54: ideas surrounding the LON-CAPA project?</a>
55: <br />17. <a href='#q17'>How are you similar or different to
56: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</a>
57: </ul>
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>
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>
68: <hr />2. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q2' />So I think I'm done with the LON-CAPA installation.
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
75: <a href='mailto:felicia@lon-capa.org'>Felicia</a> is helping answer
76: questions related to the LON-CAPA web interface.
77: </p>
78: <hr />3. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q3' />Why do I have to worry about choosing a "role"?</font></font>
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>
1.3 harris41 84: <hr />4. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />What kind of
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>
121: <hr />4a. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />Will this work on BSD Unix?</font></font>
122: <p>
123: No.
124: </p>
125: <hr />4b. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q4' />Will this work on Mac OS X?</font></font>
126: <p>
127: No.
128: </p>
129: <hr />5. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q5' />What does LON-CAPA stand for?</font></font>
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>
136: <hr />6. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q6' />Who wrote this code?</font></font>
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>
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>
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>
149: <hr />9. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q9' />How do I upgrade?</font></font>
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>
154: <hr />10. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q10' />What are RPMs?</font></font>
155: <p>
156: Software packages that are (usually) very easy to install. RPM stands
157: for RedHat Packaging Manager software package.
158: </p>
159: <hr />11. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q11' />How do I know this will be a secure solution for
160: my users?</font></font>
161: <p>
162: LON-CAPA is distributed without warranty as described in the
163: <a href='http://mycrow.mph.msu.edu/docs/license/index.html'>license</a>.
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>
170: <hr />12. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q12' />How do I contribute code?</font></font>
171: <p>
172: Send a diff to <a href='mailto:lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org'>
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>
179: <hr />13. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q13' />
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>
184: <hr />14. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q14' />
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>
197: <hr />15. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q15' />
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>
203: <hr />16. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q16' />
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
208: <a href='http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html'>
209: http://www.lon-capa.org/technical.html</a>.
210: </p>
211: <hr />17. <font color='blue'><font size='+1'><a name='q17' />
212: How are you similar or different to
213: WebCT, Blackboard, etc?</font></font>
214: <p>
215: I would suggest two major differences
216: <ol>
217: <li>In LON-CAPA, the <strong>user</strong> is the fundamental data object.
218: Other educational software systems seem to focus on the <strong>virtual
219: classroom</strong> as the fundamental data object.</li>
220: <li>I look at it like this. Many strictly profit-based enterprises aim to
221: significantly please 80% of their users. LON-CAPA started out, in the
222: beginning, aiming for a much higher percentage since the whole project
223: was about doing what no one had done before.
224: </li>
225: </ol>
226: </p>
227: <!-- maintext end -->
228: </body>
229: </html>
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>
![[BACK]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to faq.html CVS log ![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [LON-CAPA] / doc / build