Com Sci 221, Programming Languages

Access to Facilities and Software

Computer Systems

Gerneral informations on CS computing service can be found at CS Computing Service

All of the computing work for this course will be done on the Unix/Linux systems. Once you get an account on classes, you could be able to log onto any of the Linux machines in Ryerson 175. If you want to work remotely (i.e, from your home PC), you are highly recommended to use 'ssh' instead of 'telnet' or 'rlogin', 'ssh' is more secure, more efficient, and it provides remote display of X applications in a secure and efficient way . (so you don't have to worry about xhost+ or setenv etc.)

Note: currently, the Linux machines in Ryerson 175 refuse all connections outside cs.uchicago.edu except 'ssh'. There are instructions on Setting up 'ssh'

If you do not know how to use your account, call "Computer Account Administration" at 702-4663. If you do not know how to use your account, there is a good chance that you are not ready to take the course, so please speak to me as well.

Programming Language Compilers and Interpreters

You will need to use the following programming language interpreters and compilers for your homework assignments:

 Language   Version              Command

        C                        cc or gcc         (compiler)
      C++                        gcc               (compiler) 
   Scheme   DrScheme             drscheme          (interpreter)
       ML   Standard ML of NJ    sml               (interpreter)
   Prolog   Gnu Prolog           gprolog           (interpreter)

cc and gcc are found in /usr/bin, and drscheme, sml, gprolog are found in /usr/local/bin, which may not be searched when you type the command name. (if you type the command and get back "command not found", then the path is not set correctly) The handiest thing is to add /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin to your PATH variable in your .cshrc, .login, or other UNIX shell customization file. Otherwise, you have to type /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin before each command, which gets tiresome.

Utility Software

In order to work effectively, you will need to use a fair variety of UNIX utility software. If you are not familiar with much of this already, or able to pick it up very quickly, you may have trouble with the course. I recommend:

UNIX/Linux shell:: You can't do UNIX/Linux without a shell --- the interactive system that processes your commands. I prefer tcsh, but if you are accustomed to another shell, stick with it.
Editor:: To prepare programs and supporting documents. An editor that suuplies the graphical interface is a big help. I strongly recommend Emacs.
Web browser:: To read the documents that I've prepared for you, and participate in the online discussion. I recommend Mosaic or NetScape on graphics stations, Lynx on character terminals. NetScape has been installed as /usr/local/bin/netscape on all the Linux machines in Ryerson 175 as well as the classes machine.
Mail:: mail or pine are available on the Linux machines, mail is installed as /usr/bin/mail and pine is installed as usr/local/bin/pine.
Online manual:: Of course, you can type the man command to the shell, but I recommend Xman, running in its own window, whenever you are on a graphics terminal. The command is //usr/openwin/bin/xman on the classes account and /usr/X1186/bin/xman on the Linux machines.
Document processing:: I don't require you to typeset your homework, but I do allow my grading to be influenced by the ease of reading your work. I use LaTeX to produce highly legible documents containing math and programs. It is probably too much work to learn LaTeX just for the purpose of doing homework in this course, but if you do other technical or mathematical writing, you will need to learn it eventually. MacWrite is easy to learn and produces nice results also, but then you have to move between UNIX and Mac. Or, you can try to keep your handwriting really neat. It's up to you.

Laboratory Access

You may do your computing work from any terminal or computer that can connect to your classes accout, or you can work on the Linux machines (either locally or remotely) that are available in Ryerson 175. I recommend that you use Ryerson 175 as much as possible, and take advantage of X Windows, which allows you to interleave editing, compiling, looking up documentation, communicating, etc. much more flexibly than other available systems. Ryerson 175 is open during the same hours as the MacIntosh laboratory in Ryerson 178. If the door is shut, ask the lab tutor in Ryerson 178 to let you in.

The names of the Linux machine in Ryerson 175 are :
(all ends with cs.uchicago.edu, so admiral is actually admiral.cs.uchicago.edu)

admiral
broker
tippecanoe
royal-palm
montrealer
penn-texas
senator
st-louisan
trail-blazer
west-coast-champion
james-whitcomb
union
golden-state
manhattan
gotham
barnacle
the-400
broadwalk
fast-mail

Last modified: Wed Sep 29 15:53:04 CDT 1999