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The Teaching System - finding your way around

When people talk about "the Teaching System" here they often mean the DPO machines. Though the DPO is where most of the terminals are, some are in the EIE lab. Also the machines are used for far more than just teaching. Two main types of machine are available

The terminals at the "main staircase" end of the DPO are PCs running Windows. You use them to access an Linux machine in the machine room at the other end of the DPO.
The terminals on the benches in the DPO are PCs running Linux (a version of Unix). It's a set-up much like the one that the free MDP Resource CD offers.
The terminals on the benches in the EIE lab are PCs that can run Linux or Windows (they're "dual boot").

Wherever you use the Teaching System, your files will always be there (appearing as icons), and you'll be able to use editors, mailers, browsers, etc, but the appearance won't always be quite the same. To help you, here are some tips, colour-coded according to the type of system used - Windows, or Linux

What computers are for

Rather than looking at hardware and operating systems, let's consider what you use computers for

Teaching programs - The majority of programs used in teaching are on the Linux System
The Web - The Windows, and Linux machines run Internet Explorer and Firefox respectively. They're much the same except when it comes to dealing with movie and sound files.
Mail - Often accessed via web browser nowadays, though dedicated mail programs exist - pine (a text-only mail program) is on the the Linux System, the Windows and Linux machines have Thunderbird
Programming - The Linux System has the most programming languages.
Engineering Packages - These are mostly on the Linux System. Matlab is on all machines.
General Work - The Linux system has the widest range of general purpose programs - use the bottom-left buttons.
Image manipulation - Linux has gimp.
Document Preparation - Linux has OpenOffice (which is like Word) and LaTeX (in the form of lyx and Kile) . The Windows system has WordReader
File Management - The Windows machines offer the Windows way of dealing with files, the Linux machines offer a Windows-like way.

Hints and Tips

File management - If you hold down the right mouse-button while clicking on an icon you get a menu of options.
Starting programs - Click on their icons, or choose them from menus. On Linux machines especially, it's worth opening a terminal window and typing the program's name if you can't find a program on the menus.
Printing - the main programs have a print option.
Getting help - Whichever set-up you use, help's never far away. Some programs have their own help menus. Our main help documentation is on the web in the Help System. You can try mailing the operators to get an answer during office hours.

The Teaching System - finding your way around

What computers are for

Hints and Tips

See Also