Assignment #1
An Introduction to the Linux Tools : Netscape, Xemacs and Xfig
CS371 Spring 2000
Date Issued 01/17/2000
Date Due 01/24/2000
Introduction
This is the first Laboratory in CS371. This laboratory helps you set up the Linux environment in your account  to provide skills in using such basic features as the WEB browser,  an email tool, text editor, and simple graphical editor. You'll find these tools necessary to proceed with other assignments and the CS371 Final Project.

It is supposed that you already have an account in CS domain and know how to login to Linux and to start some graphical user interface program ( for instance,  type startx on the command line after logging into your account  )

Tools used for software development in Linux might be quite sophisticated and support plenty of options, so it is very important to have an access to documentation describing these tools. Generally there are two main sources of information available:

-   web pages that could be browsed and printed by using Netscape tool,
-   manual pages that could be browsed (and printed if necessary) by using the Linux man command.

Of course, you can also find a lot of useful information in books on Linux and Unix, and in newsgroups on the net (Netscape news browser could be used to read the news groups as well.)
 

Netscape
To start  Netscape type
           netscape &
in the command line.

Exercise 1.  Browse the CS Dept. COG page

On the Netscape main toolbar, type
   http://intranet/
in the in the text box where and press Enter. A message box pops up which asks you for your login and password.
 
 















After you enter these, it will bring you to the COG home page that contains description of all hardware and software available in the CS domain. Read carefully all the sections, notice what software is available for Linux, check what on-line documentation is available from the COG page. when you can not login in the COG Intranet he/she should contact COG (in person or by email) and request a password for this.

Exercise 2.  Web search

Press Net Search button on the Tool bar menu. It will bring a page full with the links to different Web search engines. It appears that Alta Vista is the one of the powerful and adequate search engines that serve our purpose as for now. Click on the link to Alta Vista under the Search Engines header or open directly the link
http://altavista.digital.com/
  and, when there, read the on-line help how to perform a web search.
Try to search for the word  linux or programming in C. You'll receive quite an impressive number of Web pages that contain the word linux and Programming in C.

Now try to perform more specialized search: linux and tutorial.

There are several search engines that are available. Of them  www.lycos.com   and www.google.com are popular.

Another search engine that is as powerful as Alta Vista, if not more is Northern Lights.

Exercise 3. Email tool

On the Netscape Toolbar click on the Communicator option, and then from the drop down list, select the Messenger option. This brings a mail tool window on your screen. Try to send a message, e.g. to yourself, and see how to read a new message. There are other email tools that are available such as pine, elm.. etc

Note:

People with new accounts may have some problems in sending mails using netscape mail because the preferences may not be set correctly. To correctly set the preferences, click on the Preferences option from the drop down list of the Edit menu in the Netscape menubar. Then click on the Mail and Newsgroups option and set the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server as cs.nmsu.edu and the Outgoing Mail Server User Name as your login ID.

Exercise 4. News group browser

Open the mail box  and click on file item in the menu bar. Select Subscribe option fromt the drop down list. This brings a News group browser window on your screen. Open the Options menu and choose the News option. Click on the news.software group from the drop down list. This will bring a list of newsgroups related to computing and programming. Browse this list and subscribe to the newsgroups which you feel might be of interest to you. Don't forget to check this news group regularly.

There are other email tools that are available such as pine. The details of the various tools that are available on the COG intranet site.
 

Xemacs text editor
Xemacs text editor is a very powerful tool to create and to read text files in Linux environment. Click with the mouse left button somewhere in your screen background. it opens a Fvwm menu, or you can also open xemacs by simply clicking on the xemacs icon in the toolbar at the right hand corner of the screen. Click on  Applications first and then on the xemacs option from the drop down list. . In the upper right corner of xemacs window open Help menu and choose Basics and then Tutorial. Read carefully the Tutorial and do the exercises suggested there. Try to create a text file, store, load and modify it.
 
Graphical editor xfig
Xfig is a very powerful and flexible tool for drawing simple pictures and diagrams, and writing simple documents. Type man xfig and read the manual page for xfig or you can also read the online manual available at http://duke.usask.ca/~macphed/soft/fig/xfig-manual/index.html .

To run xfig, type xfig in the command line and try to draw some figures. Try to create a graphical file, store, load and modify it.

Note:
Various  manuals are available online . You can find may such tutorials searching the web. Some online tutorials which may be useful are.
http://www.linux.ie/beginners-linux-guide/ .
www.linux.org

To run xfig, type xfig in the command line and try to draw some figures. Try to create a graphical file, store, load and modify it.

Note:

When you create a graphical file using xfig, it is usually created and stored as a *.fig file. You can convert that file to any of the other standard graphical file formats ( i.e. you can convert it into a gif, tiff, jpeg, pcx  file, to name only a few ) using the export option present in xfig. The conversion script uses ghostscript, so you should have Ghostview sourced in you .cshrc file to enable conversion, i.e. you should include the following line in your .cshrc file
source /local/config/cshrc.ghostview

Home Assignment ( 10 Points )

Using xfig reproduce the flow chart supplied to you ( Example  picture here). Retain all the original  cases and other details in your drawing.
 

Submission Requirements

     
 CS371 Home| back|next