Theme: Unix (including Linux) Systems & Use

Emacs is a very powerful plain text editor used across the computer-using community world-wide. This course will introduce its basic use and explain how it can make your life dealing with plain text or program source code much easier.

This is a simple demonstration of the installation of a reasonably modern Linux distribution (currently OpenSuSE 10.3) on a standard, low end PC. There is an opportunity for extensive questions and answers during the software installation phase.

This course describes how patterns in text strings can be matched using regular expressions. A number of programming and scripting languages (such as Python, Perl, and Java) and other applications (such as Apache, PHP, Exim, and some text editors) support the use of regular expression patterns. Although there are some differences between the different implementations, there is also a lot in common.

The course has been modified and extended from the one previously given by Philip Hazel, the author of the PCRE ("Perl Compatible Regular Expressions") library, one of the standard and widely used regular expression libraries. The extensions are: Python and Java to the same level as Perl and PCRE; more warnings about problem areas, background usage and programming hints; and a short section on true (computer science) regular expressions and their uses when transferring data between programs.

This course is part of the Scientific Computing series.

It is common for a student or researcher to find a piece of software or to have one thrust upon them by a supervisor which they must then build, install and use. It is a myth that any of this requires system privilege. This course demonstrates the building, installation and use of typical software ranging from trivially easy examples (the "configure, make, install" scheme) through to the evils of badly written Makefiles. Common errors and what they mean will be covered and by the end of the course the student should be able to manage their own software without needing to pester their system administrator.

The course is designed to take someone from having no knowledge of the Unix command line to being able to navigate around directories, and doing simple file manipulation. Then some of the more basic commands, will be introduced, including information on how to get more help from the system itself. Finally accessing remote computers by ssh and the most basic of shell scripts will be introduced.

This course is part of the Scientific Computing series.

Please note that this course is NOT suitable for beginner or novice shell scripters. It is also NOT suitable for those who do not have significant practical experience of writing (or trying to write) their own shell scripts.

The purpose of this workshop is to give attendees the opportunity to ask questions about any problems they have encountered in trying to write their own shell scripts in bash, and to obtain advice on how to tackle more complex shell scripting tasks. It is unlikely to be of use to attendees who do not have some experience of writing shell scripts for their own purposes.

It is essential that those attending the workshop have thought of some questions to ask the presenters, or of some scenarios/problems they wish to explore with the presenters, prior to attending.

The intended audience of this workshop is those who have previously attended the Unix Shell Scripting course.

This course is part of the Scientific Computing series.

No previous experience of shell scripting is required for this course; however some knowledge of the interactive use of the bash shell is a prerequisite (see Simple Shell Scripting for Scientists: Prerequisites for details).

This course introduces shell scripting in bash for scientific computing tasks. Day one introduces very basic shell scripts in bash which process the command line in a simple fashion. Day two covers how to write more advanced shell scripts in bash. Day three covers how to make one's shell scripts more robust.

At the end of each day one or more exercises are set. It is VERY IMPORTANT that attendees attempt these exercises before the next day of the course. Attendees should make sure that they have allowed themselves sufficient study time for these exercises between each day of the course.

This self-paced hands-on course gives a quick introduction to the Vi text editor, a widely available text editor for Unix (and other) systems. Participants work at their own pace using provided notes and exercises, with a demonstrator on hand to help.