Lab#1: Getting around on your PC
Lab#1: Getting around on your PC
Today we're going to cover a range of things you can do on your PC
Feel free to ask questions & suggest what you'd like to hear about
A computer is a box: Input --> | Processor | --> Output
If you haven't already done so, turn on your computer
Usually two switches--for terminal and computer itself--latter is usually in back
Let's start from the outside of the box: the peripheral (input/output) devices
Components that let computer interact with user and store/retrieve information
What are some input devices you use to interact with the PC?
keyboard -- looks sort of like a typewriter, only lots more keys
Enter or Carriage Return key--from days when you manually pushed a carriage
A computer oftens wait for you to press the Return key to enter a line
type DIRT -- press backspace (erases T) -- press Return
Besides the keys you find on a typewriter, what else do you find?
Arrow or Cursor keys, Function Keys, Esc
These have different meanings in different contexts
Press up arrow key: it displays the last command (in MS-DOS)
Some "keys" are formed by hidden combinations of keys:
pressing shift by itself does nothing, but shift-a makes capital A
pressing ctrl by itself does nothing, but ctrl-a makes a strange character
ctrl-a means nothing to MS-DOS, but does to other programs
similarly alt works in combination with other keys, e.g., alt-h
a couple of useful ones: shift-PrtSc, ctrl-PrtSc
ctrl-c/ctrl-break often means cancel a program--when you're desparate!
ctrl-alt-del reboots a PC (less drastic than turning it off and on!)
To see some of these combination keys in action, type edit
We're invoking the MS-DOS text editor
Press Enter to see the Survival Guide. Do you notice a blinking underscore?
That's the "cursor"--a pointer into your environment
--don't press Enter now, if you did you'd go into "Getting Started"
Instead, use the down arrow to go to "Keyboard," then press Enter
Under "Shortcuts," notice how many combination keys there are here!
OK, let's look at the editor--press Esc (short for "escape")
You should see a blank screen: type into it: "My name is Professor Blank"
Press the back arrow (points leftward) to go backwards
Press ctrl-back arrow: what happens? Press Home--what happens? Press End
Hold down the Alt key: what happens? The menu bar on top becomes active
Press Alt-F to bring down file menu, for example...
Press Alt-H to get more help about this editor
mouse
Some mice have one, two or three buttons--mostly use left button
Try using mouse in MS-DOS editor to pull down menu options
other input devices? pen, microphone, touchscreen, scanner
What are some output devices that the PC can use to interact with you?
screen
How are some screen more powerful than others?
different resolutions: character, graphics (EGA, VGA, SuperVGA)
speakers (music, speech production)
printer
May be connected locally by a cable, or across a network
What are some devices that store information or data for a computer?
disk drives -- floppy drives, which come in different sizes
at first floppy drives were indeed floppy
newer versions are firmer, more reliable, and hold more data
do you all have your own floppy disk?
put it in floppy drive now and shut the drive bay latch
type format a: to format the floppy, preparing it for use
Note: usually you only format a file once--formatting again destroys old data
What's the advantage of a a floppy drive? portability of data (back up)
A hard drive is usually built into a computer
How can you tell when a PC is accessing data on a hard drive?
Type in dir and watch the light
What are some advantages of a hard drive?
Other storage devices: CDROM -- optical storage, read only
tape, paper tape, keypunch cards
Any questions you're dying to ask about computer devices?
OK, your computer is turned on: what program is running?
MS-DOS -- How do you know? What is it? Microsoft Disk Operating System
Yes, this is the program that made Bill Gates rich and famous!
An Operating System is a program that operates the computer system for you,
that is, controls access to input/output devices,
manages access to memory, executes basic commands,
and runs other programs for you.
DOS comes with a suite of commands, such as format
To learn a little about DOS commands:
help help help
Many commands have to do with managing files -- what are files?
a file is a collection of data stored on a disk
type setup.txt
list setup.txt (list does not come with DOS, but found on most campus PCs)
help dir -- What is a directory? dir dir /w
Besides a list of files in current directory, what else does dir tell you?
File commands
More file commands
ren setup.txt shalom -- how can you tell that you've renamed this file?
ren shalom setup.txt2 -- what happens to the 2? DOS file names constraints
copy setup.txt shalom dir
del shalom
undelete shalom (A relatively new feature of MSDOS)
print shalom
More directory commands -- what is a subdirectory -- like a drawer in a file cabinet
tree
mkdir gdb
cd gdb dir cd .. cd \
copy shalom gdb What do you think this will do?
cd .. rmdir gdb Why won't this work?
del gdb\*.* -- What do * characters mean? rmdir gdb
Drives named by letters, A:, B: C:, D:, E:, F:
A: and B: are floppy drives, C: is usually the local hard drive
copy shalom a: -- Why do we get this error message?
format a: -- be careful!
In labs, D:, E:, F: are usually not local drive -- anyone know where they are?
What is a LAN? Network lets many computers communicate and share resources,
e.g. drives (and common files on a drive), printers, etc.
help lan -- lots of programs shared via the lan
help -- Any other commands you'd like to know about?
scratch -- LAN creates a temporary working directory for you Warning: this goes away!
win Windows provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Icons represent programs, program manager, file manager
Notepad under Windows
Switching task with alt-tab (alt-shift-tab)
File - Run a program, browse
Some programs run under Windows but not DOS (Any idea why?)
So, how many like Windows better than DOS? DOS better than Windows? Open an MSDOS box under Windows
Terminating a DOS process (you must do this before you can exit Windows)
The Campus Network and the Internet
access -- gives access to other computers on campus
Network Server -- What is the Network Server, anyway?
send
nicknames, e.g. barnes, csc98
you may notice that my editor is different from yours
F4 F5 (Add cc: to gdb0, so we all get this memo)
BTW: Esc 5 F5 (in case F5 doesn't work, e.g., on a workstation)
read
some useful options, which you can explore with F1 -
F10 to reply ShiftF10 to reply including the sender's message F9 to forward
Shift F1 (or Esc q) -- save message as a file
Suppose we want to get this file from the server to your PC?
download (do) upload (up)
bulletin boards and newsgroups -- events, sale
subnews -- subscribing to newsgroups from the Internet
You have access to people all over the world
email lets you talk to other individuals
news lets you communicate with groups
F10 -- reading the newsgroups you've selected
ftp pluto.csee -- file transfer protocol
login: ftp -- anonymous ftp -- don't need to have an account!
cd pub/pc
dir
mget ue312* --microemacs editor (DOS or Windows version?)
ftp oak.oakland.edu -- more stuff available via internet
can also ftp from Pcs on a LAN to other computers to transfer files quickly
telnet -- connect to a workstatation, another machine you can use
Suppose you're not a LAN, how can you communicate with other computers
modem and communications program, such as kermit
Break to look at Multimedia demo, if available
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