Getting Started in the Computer Science Labs (ICL?)

Last updated on Wed Sep 7 15:20:11 EDT 2011

When you first use your CS department account, you will need to login to one of several kinds of machines based on the lab you have entered, change your password, configure your account, and access programs to edit and run your programs. The instructions below are divided based on the Instructional Computing Lab (ICL) you are using and the common things you will do to finish setting up things.

Of course the very first step is:
Login with the login name and password on your account sheet.

(Note: Any text in this font is content you would type. Surrounding quotations, if any, are not part of the command unless they are also in this "teletype" font.)

Common Steps --- ICLs 1 2 and 3 (Linux) --- ICL 5 (Mac OSX) --- ICL 6 (PC Windows)

Common Steps

Login to a machine in an ICL lab.
Change your password.
Open a terminal window program.
Navigate the terminal's shell to the directory where you will put the files of your work.
Run an editor (e.g. gedit) or IDE (e.g. idle).
Run a specific version of python (e.g. python3).
Log out from a machine in an ICL lab. DON'T FORGET! DON'T LOCK SCREEN!

ICLs 1 2 and 3 (Linux)

Open a terminal (window) from the menu bar at the top. For the rest of this sequence, you will work in the terminal window.
Enter the command cspasswd to change your password and follow the directions of the program. You will NOT see any characters typed when entering the password.
Enter the command ls to list your home directory (folder). You should see a directory named Courses.
Enter the command cd Courses to enter the Courses directory.
Enter the command mkdir lab1 to create a lab1 directory.
Enter the command cd lab1 to enter the lab1 directory.
Enter the command idle3 -n & in the terminal.
Now you are ready to begin using IDLE to work with the Python programming language...
When you want to run a version of python (e.g. python3), you can use the terminal to enter the command python3 MYFILE.py where MYFILE.py is the file name of your program.

ICL 5 (Mac OSX)

Start the Finder, a smiling face icon on the desktop tray.
Navigate within the Finder through Applications to Utilities.
Locate the Terminal application and start it.
Login to the machine glados.cs.rit.edu so that you can change your CS department password. The command is:
ssh -Y LOGINID@glados.cs.rit.edu, where LOGINID is your CS login name.
Enter the command cspasswd to change your password and follow the directions of the program. You will NOT see any characters typed when entering the password.
Enter the command exit to log out of glados.cs.rit.edu.
Enter the command cd Courses to enter the Courses directory.
Enter the command mkdir lab1 to create a lab1 directory.
Enter the command cd lab1 to enter the lab1 directory.
Enter the command idle3.1 -n & in the terminal.
Now you are ready to begin using IDLE to work with the Python programming language...
When you want to run a version of python (e.g. python3), you can use the terminal to enter the command python3 MYFILE.py where MYFILE.py is the file name of your program.

ICL 6 (PC Windows)

Start putty, a remote login application on the desktop.
In putty, enter the machine name glados.cs.rit.edu so that you can login into that machine and change your CS department password. When you click the button to proceed, a terminal window will pop up and ask login as: Enter LOGINID, where LOGINID is your CS login name. Next enter your current password when it prompts you.
At this time, you may exit from putty. The next time you login to any CS machine, your new password will be expected when you login.
Start Explorer
Drive Explorer to the H: drive. This is your account's server HOME, where you will find a Courses directory. Navigate to Courses and create a folder for your lab1 files.
Drive Explorer to http://www.cs.rit.edu/~vcss241/idle.txt, and save as idle.bat on your Desktop. Be sure you check that the dialog is saving in all files mode, not text mode; otherwise this file will not be runnable by windows.
When the "idle" icon appears on the Desktop, right-click and choose create shortcut.
Right-click on the shortcut and edit the "Properties". In the dialog you should enter H:\Courses in the box that sets the folder in which the idle program will start when activated by the shortcut.
You now should be able to double-click on the shortcut, which should start the idle application.
Now you are ready to begin using IDLE to work with the Python programming language...
When you want to run a version of python, you should start a DOS window by entering cmd in the run program entry of the main desktop menu. When this terminal window appears, you would issue the H: command, followed by the cd Courses\lab1 command (assuming that you created a lab1 there). Typically the program to run is python3 MYFILE.py, where MYFILE.py is the file name of your program.