Haverford College Computer Science

Computer Science Teaching Lab: Koshland INSC H110

Availability/Access to lab computers

This lab is available to students as long as there is not class or lab scheduled, see the weekly schedule to confirm. The lab is staffed in the evenings Sunday through Thursday, 7 - 9 pm. It is also possible to work over the network: see the Guide to Accessing Your Projects from Outside the H110 Lab; if you want to use the KINSC H204 lab, also see Using Xming to connect to the Springfield Cluster from KINSC H204 (you are also welcome to install Xming on your own Microsoft Windows computer if you like --- Leo Sussan did this successfully while taking CS105 in the Fall of 2008, and has graciously contributed these directions. Since Leo wrote his original directions, the download site has changed; we will try to post new links here if we can find them. also note that sometimes it works best to enter your password in the putty connection setup dialog, rather than leaving it out as Leo's original directions suggest. ). Finally, note that Leo (and others) have decided that the X11 server software they've tried for MS Windows is not nearly as nice as that for linux, and now either dual-boot their computers or boot from an Ubuntu Live CD.

Access to files for assignments

Once in the lab, you'll need to start Eclipse and configure it to work for your course. See the Setting up Eclipse for the CS Teaching Lab (for Python projects) and Using Eclipse to Obtain (and Submit) Lab Work pages. We also have instructions for not using Eclipse in the lab, which were written when we had trouble with Eclipse.

Software

Ubuntu Linux
Eclipse (IDE for various languages, including Python (via the PyDev "plugin" --- just open "Help->Install New Software..." and click on the "Add" button to add the location "http://pydev.org/updates", then select Pydev and click on "Next" and "Finish" as needed (you'll also need to accept the licence)) and C++ (via the C++ plugin, which is included by default if you download the C++ version of Eclipse)).
Python (already installed on most computers)
HERA(Haverford Educational Resourse Architecture)
MPI (Message Passing Interface) for parallel scientific computation

Hardware

Intel Dual-Core workstations from components (10), each with 2 GB RAM, 80 GB disk, Dell 20" wide screen flat panels
Server for authentication (NIS) and files (NFS)
HP 1320 laser printer
Intergrated AV system for computer, laptop, CD/DVD/VHS, JBL speakers, XGA projector
Tri-College card access (24/7 access for appropriate students/faculty)

Note that all of the above software is freely available (just follow the links), so you can install and use these programs on your own computer, but see the warning at the end of Option 2 of the Guide to Accessing Your Projects from Outside the H110 Lab. Note that PyDev can only be installed for Eclipse 3.3 if you take off the checked "Pydev optional extensions" so that those will not be installed.

If you want to work on your labs on another computer, you'll also have to get any Haverford-specific files, such as the logic.py file for stating preconditions and postconditions, or equivalent libraries for running C++ programs (request via email or copy the file Haverford-course-support.tgz from /home/courses/).

Page maintained by John Dougherty, David Wonnacott.
Computer Science Department, Haverford College.