Com Sci 105
Fundamentals of Computer Programming (Scheme)
Fall 1998

Department of Computer Science
The University of Chicago

Last modified: Tue Oct 6 09:25:39 CDT 1998

All class discussion, outside of lecture meetings, should be carried out with the HyperNews system. HyperNews allows you to attach "responses" to "articles" created by the instructor, and also to other people's responses. It presents the articles and responses as HTML documents, which you may view through your favorite World Wide Web browser. I have provided four articles as starting points:

• Fall 1998
  • Class Work
  • Course Evaluation
  • Social Chit Chat
• Test Forum
• Archive of previous years' discussions

Please use the Class Work article for all discussion of course content outside of class. All questions about lectures, the textbooks, homework assignments, programming projects, and the contents of the final exam, answers to those questions, and other discussion of the ideas in the course, belong in the public discussion under Class Work. Only items that are truly of no interest to the class at large, or that are confidential, should be taken up by electronic mail.

References

• HyperNews
• HTML

General Instructions

HyperNews is a new system from NCSA for carrying out discussions on the World Wide Web. The presentation and documentation are still a bit confusing, but the functionality is essentially right, so it is best for us to get on the bandwagon, and increase the incentive for NCSA to improve things.

The best way to get the hang of HyperNews is to use it. Practice in the Test area. Refer to the instructions provided by NCSA for detailed information, but keep in mind that the instructions describe a configurable system which is still under development. In particular, they do not cover local choices made in the installation that we are using.

Confusing Points

1. Not all of the buttons at the bottom of a discussion page may be used by general participants. The Delete and Copy buttons are only available to system administrators.
2. The Notify button leads to a page that allows you to subscribe or unsubscribe to a particular article or response. The only point of subscribing is to be notified by Email of additional responses. I strongly recommend that you subscribe to the Class Work article.
3. The Membership button lets you enter, and later modify, information about yourself, including your name, URL if you have one, and the form in which you wish to be notified of new responses. Everyone in the class should enroll as a member of the local HyperNews discussion group.
4. The Response button is the only obvious one: it creates a response. This is the only button that you are likely to use repeatedly. The other ones should not have been included on every page. Perhaps a later release of HyperNews, or some local reconfiguration, will improve this.