General Information for SCU Students
In CS-Related Courses (Math 10, 60, 61)

D. C. Smolarski, S.J. -- Winter 1999
Santa Clara University, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

[Return to Math 10 Homepage | Return to Math 60 Homepage | Return to Math 61 Homepage]

Last changed: 12 June 1999.

GENERAL ADVICE

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know when you are having problems. Do NOT assume all problems are due to your misunderstanding a command. Unless you let me (or someone else) know about problems, we are unable to help you fix those problems! (And many times I have to make phone calls to other people on campus to have things fixed!)

The information given below applies mainly to using the departmental server, i.e., math. Except for the note on printing, the information is not applicable to running programs with CodeWarrior or Borland C++.

Modem Numbers

There are two different ways to connect the university's computer system and network.

Classical Modem (Non-Graphical Interface):
Students may dial into the university system via (408)-554-5296 or (408)-554-5050.

When the line connects, after a few seconds, a banner will appear and a prompt for your username. (If this does not appear after a few seconds, press the RETURN key a few times.) Type your username and then (after the Local: prompt) type 

     connect math
to connect to math.

If you use a modem to dial in and connect to the university network, check your program and see what "terminal emulation" is being used. Usually, a common emulation is VT100. Then when you log in to math, and get the TERM = (vt220) prompt, type back 

     vt100
so that your machine can talk to "math" correctly regarding emacs (and its cursor commands).

PPP (Graphical Interface):
Faculty and Staff may dial into the university system via (408)-551-1679 or (408)-551-1824.
Students do not have access to this service, but can have such access via some commonly available ISP (Internet Service Provider). PacBell in the past has provided a special rate for SCU students. (Students with AOL accounts can dialin to AOL, then minimize the AOL window, and then start up a telnet protocol to connect to "math.")

To connect via a PPP line, one must use a "network" dialing protocol (one version comes bundled with Windows 95/98 as "Dial-Up Networking" among the "Accessories" software).

When connecting to SCU's PPP lines directly, enter your GroupWise username and password into the local machine's dialing software.

When connected, you have access to the campus network as if you were on campus. Thus, you can make use of Netscape or telnet software, if they are loaded on your local machine. To connect to "math" you would then need to invoke telnet on your local machine, and connect to "math.scu.edu" according to standard procedure for your software.

Network Connection and Printing Problems

If you are having difficulty printing in O'Connor 30 from PC based software (e.g., CodeWarrior, Borland C++, WordPerfect, Netscape), you MUST remember to log into the network (read sign on the door and on the wall). This will be the procedure that is scheduled to go into effect (eventually) in the Kenna and Orradre Computer Labs. See this link for further information.

Emacs Problems

If you run into a problem with emacs, in that the computer gives some sort of "error" message about X-windows and the DISPLAY, this is probably a message that says that the machine does not know how to start an additional window with emacs in it.

There are several ways to eliminate this message: a) You can log out and reboot the machine. This usually solves the problem (which is often caused by another using connecting to a different machine).

b) You can invoke EMACS in a non-windows mode. To do this, type the command as follows (for examples): 

	    math 21: emacs -nw sample.txt
The addition of "-nw" before the filename indicates that you want emacs to work in "NonWindows" mode.

c) You can try a different terminal emulation. REMEMBER that when you log in, if you get the initial prompt 

            TERM = (hp)
you should immediately type 
            vt220
NOTE: If you do not reset the "terminal type" but merely press carriage return, you will most probably have significant difficulties in using emacs because "math" will expect that you are working at an HP workstation rather than a PC with a software terminal emulation program.

X-Server and Font Size

If when using X-Server and the character size is too small, you can click (with the mouse) on the upper bar on the FONTS, and then click on JUMBO to increase the font size immediately.

Redirection of Output

Instead of getting output on a screen, one can redirect the output to a file using the > sign (cf. Unix 6 Notes). But this can lead to major problems if your program has an infinite loop in it!

Never redirect output into a file, unless you first see the output on the terminal screen! If your program goes into an infinite loop, you may use up all the disk space for you and everyone else on the system.

This page is maintained by Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J. dsmolarski@math.scu.edu
© Copyright 1998, 1999 Dennis C. Smolarski, SJ, All rights reserved.