MUUG Linux/System-Administration SIG Meetings for 1994-95


September 20, 1994: Linux Slackware Update

The new season started and we had a good turnout for our September 20 meeting. The meeting started with the round table format. The topics dealt mostly around Linux with discussions from setting up X-windows, how stable it is, network capabilities, what CD-ROM support is available, where is a good FTP site for Linux software (sunsite.unc.edu recommended) and what's new in Linux. Linux Slackware FAQs and other information is also available on our own FTP server.

Greg Moeller graciously brought everyone up to date on what's new in Linux. Some of the highlights were: Slackware is now at Version 2.0 with the stable Linux kernel at 1.0.8, and it now has token-ring support. Also, Linux is now being adopted by GNU. On a more important note :) DOOM is now available on Linux.

October 18, 1994: Rapid Application Prototyping with Tk and Tcl

In addition to the usual round-table discussion, we had a more formal presentation on Tk and Tcl, by Budi Rahardjo, Armein Langi, and Tapas Shome, all from the University of Manitoba's Department of Electrical Engineering. Budi started off by giving some background and an overview of Tcl and the Tk toolkit, and also gave references to available publications on the subject. (Budi has also made some examples and documents available on EE's FTP server.)

Armein followed, with a look at Khoros, a toolkit that lets you interactively (and graphically) set up digital signal processing systems, building from a library of available objects that can do simple filtering and processing. After prototyping with this system, a user interface can be developped using Tk and Tcl.

Tapas ended off the presentation, by showing how Tk can be used to build up a graphical application (the example used was a simple graph editor), using Tk's canvas widget and event bindings.

November 15, 1994: Writing Scripts Using Tk and Tcl

Your friendly neighbourhood SIG coordinator, Gilbert Detillieux, not only chaired this meeting, but also did the presentation, which was a follow-up on last month's overview of Tk and Tcl. After a lively round-table discussion (despite the low attendance at this meeting), the presentation started with slides from two short presentations that John Ousterhout (the author of Tcl and Tk) made available on the net. The meeting ended off with a demo of some simple Tk applications, which were run on a laptop PC running Linux Slackware.

All of the materials that were presented, including Tk/Tcl software and documentation, and example scripts, have been made available on our FTP server. Some information about Tk and Tcl is also available on our Web server.

December 1994: No meeting this month

We hope you enjoyed the holidays, and we wish you all the best in the new year!

January 17, 1995: Round Table on Linux and Networking

The new year started with rather nasty weather, and a very small turnout (only six people) for our January meeting. The meeting consisted of about an hour and a half of round table discussion. Topics included an update on Linux versions, network configuration, trying to find good FTP mirror sites for Linux software. (Note: apparently ftp.cps.cmich.edu is a new sunsite mirror, which also mirrors the latest kernels from ftp.funet.fi.) and what's new in Linux.

Greg Moeller graciously brought everyone up to date on what's new in Linux. The linux kernel is going into a code freeze at version 1.1.82. The 1.2 version should be out sometime in February. Slackware 2.0 is out of date (there is a 2.1, and possibly something newer by now, with the Linux kernel at 1.1.50 or newer).

There was also some interesting discussion about Internet service providers, and speculation about what sort of changes might be coming locally.

February 21, 1995: Linux Round Table

Once again, a very small turnout, on an evening with less than ideal weather. Topics discussed included availability of device drivers for special hardware (e.g. A/D boards), X Window servers for accelerated video boards, and others too numerous and obscure to be remembered. There was also some talk, once again, on the subject of local Internet Service Providers in the city, and the Canadian Internet Handbook, which has been found at Superstore (in East Kildonan) for the very low price of $12 and change.

Gilbert Detillieux also announced that he is stepping down as SIG coordinator, so the MUUG board is currently looking for someone to chair the SIG meetings for the remainder of the year. If you are interested, or know of someone who might be, please contact the MUUG board (board@muug.mb.ca).

March 21, 1995: Configuring X under Linux

This talk covered some of the specifics of configuring an XFree86 server under Linux, such as configuring the mouse, display adaptor, and monitor types, and adjusting those settings. This was followed by a general look at configuring an X Window user environment, such as startup scripts, resource specifications, etc.

The meeting started out with the usual round table discussion as well.

April 18, 1995: Getting Set Up on the World Wide Web

This month, Gilbert Detillieux, Systems Analyst at the U of M Department of Computer Science, gave a quick overview of what the WWW is, and what software is available to access it. This was followed by a detailed look at setting up a WWW server (network connection and server software), how to compose hypertext documents (with HTML), how to link to other documents, sites and network services (e.g. gopher and FTP) using URLs, and how to set up CGI scripts and fill-out forms. Finally some tips on effective document style and security issues involved with WWW were given.

This presentation was also given as a seminar in the Emerging Technologies seminar series, on June 7, 1995, at the CIPS Informatics/Informatique '95 conference.

May 16, 1995: A Look at "perl"

This month, Rick Horocholyn, Senior Financial Consultant at Manitoba Hydro, talked about the perl programming language, and shared some "perls" of wisdom from the trenches, giving some practical tips on how to use perl. Rick started with a short introduction to what perl is, and where and why you would use it. This was followed by an overview of perl features and syntax. The presentation ended with a few examples of perl scripts.

More information about perl is available in a couple good books, Learning Perl and Programming Perl, by O'Reilly & Associates. There is also a lot of discussion and an FAQ available in the comp.lang.perl news group. Finally, there is also information available on the Web, at the University of Florida's UF/NA Perl Archive.

June 1995: No meeting this month

July 1995: No meeting this month

August 1995: No meeting this month


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