Goblin from Arthur Rackham illustrations for Rosetti's Goblin Market

Nerd Short Class: A Collection of Tutorials

Tues. July 27:: 1-2pmNWE and CLAS Systems
Thurs. July 29:: 1-2pmMOO basics
Tues. August 3:: 1-2pmWin, Mac, and UNIX basics
Thurs. August 5:: 1-2pmthe Mighty Shell
Tuesday, July 27:: 1-2pm
Introduction, Using NWE and CLAS

Thursday, July 29:: 1-2pm
MOO for Beginners

Tuesday, August 3:: 1-2pm
Windows, Mac, and Unix Basics

Not just annoyances but general practices. We'll also add some shell stuff if we have time.

Crossplatform

  1. Biggest problem for computers in general is File management -- file name lengths, funny characters, paths. Learn this.
  2. Linefeed translation -- Windows, MacOS, and Unix all different -- is second biggest problem.
  3. Moving files between operating systems
  4. Making backups -- archives vs backups
  5. Stuff to buy for your puter

Windows

  1. Macro and other viruses
  2. Display of files
  3. Windows desktop
  4. Safe mode -- start puter up if broke
  5. Registry -- what a pain in the butt
  6. Drive mapping -- in general, in the CLAS (C D H I etc)

MacOS

  1. Extensions -- off, management, etc
  2. Multiple file operations
  3. MacOS desktop -- two senses of it -- files and stuff
  4. Application support

Shell

  1. Starting it up
  2. General terms and concepts per line (command, arguments, switches)
  3. Working directory
  4. What's with the tilde?
  5. Managing files
  6. System organization
  7. Some commands to play with (cat, wc, date)
  8. Learning more: shell help


Thursday, August 5:: 1-2pm
More on the Mighty Shell
  1. The Shell: Basic Commands Review
    1. Calendar cal, date
    2. Orienting oneself pwd, cd, ls
    3. Who's logged in? w, who
    4. File Management cp, mv, rm, mkdir, rmdir
    5. More file commands touch, file, find
    6. Useful keystrokes up arrow, down arrows, history
    7. Tab completions
    8. Lots of other commands
    9. Control keys

  2. Permissions: Every file in a Unix system has permissions assigned to it. This allows for the intense file-sharing capability we love and enjoy.
    1. Viewing permissions: ls -l, what does all that junk mean?
    2. Changing permissions: user, group, others, all; read, write, execute
    3. Special permissions: sticky bit, Big S, Big T
    4. Ultra Nerd Extra! using number codes to change permissions

  3. Job Control: keeping track of what's going on, who's doing what, and what you're doing.
    1. job control: bg, fg, jobs, top, &
    2. processes: ps, ps -fu, ps -fe

  4. Redirection: How to make the shell move information around, send it to other places, and so on.
    1. Your friend, the pipe: |
    2. input from file: <
    3. redirect to file: >
    4. append to file: >>
    5. redirect standard error and standard output
    6. useful commands: sort, more, wc, grep, head, tail

  5. What else do you do with the shell?
    1. enscript
    2. Ultra Nerd Extra! perl




Participants

(This course is based on the Nerd Short Course taught by Bradley Dilger and Brendan Riley.)


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