CS 177 Fall 2009 Lab FAQ

Useful Links

Lab Rules

  1. No food, no drinks; computers don't eat or drink, but they do break because of both. Plus, imagine how many people have used that keyboard before you... all of that is now in your mouth!
  2. Don't leave trash anywhere in the lab except for trash cans (at front of room)
  3. Don't mess with computer cables. Yes, they look interesting, yes they're pretty, but... chances are - you'll mess something up. Oh, by the way, you break it (we'll see you on the cameras) you buy it!
  4. Don't do the lab remotely from home. We will know.
  5. Respect your TA and follow his or her directions.
  6. Don't post your lab answers until you see your grade on Webct.
  7. Don't tell other lab sections what the lab is about

Turnin

Working on Projects from Home (Windows)

  1. Download the following:
    1. PuTTY
    2. WinSCP
  2. To login to PuTTY:
    1. Open PuTTY
    2. In "Host Name (or IP address)" type "lore.cs.purdue.edu"
    3. In "Saved Sessions" type "CS177"
    4. Press the Save button. Now whenever you open PuTTY you can double-click on CS177 and it will open up your PuTTY window without you having to type the host name in again.
    5. You should now have a black screen that says: "Login As:". Use the username you use when you're in the cslab.
    6. Next, "Password for username@lore.cs.purdue.edu:". Use the password you use when you're in the cslab. Don't worry, just like in lab, nothing will show up on the screen when you type.
    7. You're logged in! Note that you can't use applications that you use in the lab from PuTTY. You will only use this to do the turnin commands on projects.
  3. What editor can you use to work on your project?
  4. You can work on your files at home. You can also test your files using Firefox or Mozilla. These can be downloaded from:
When you have finished, use WinSCP to transfer your files to lore.cs.purdue.edu. Then login to lore.cs.purdue.edu using PuTTY and do the turnin commands. You now have a recipe for working on projects at home! Please note that these steps are only for doing projects at home. You should not do this for lab. Attendance is taken to ensure everyone shows up. Anyone who turns in a lab but is marked absent will receive a grade of 0 on that lab.

Note: You can work on your project at home, but you must test your project in the lab environment to make sure that it behaves as expected. The TA responsible for grading will run your program in the lab to assign a grade.

Working on Projects from Home (Mac)

  1. Download the following:
    1. jedit4.3pre12install.dmg
    2. MacFUSE-Core-10.5-1.3.1.dmg (if you are running Mac OS 10.5)
    3. MacFUSE-Core-10.4-1.3.0.dmg (if you are running Mac OS 10.4)
    4. sshfs-1.0.0.dmg
  2. jEdit is a text editor with syntax highlighting for a lot of different languages, including HTML and Javascript, so that should work well for you (if you don't like the interface or anything, you can search online for a Mac text editor with syntax highlighting for HTML and Javascript), you will be able to open and edit all your files with this program.
  3. MacFUSe is just something that sshfs requires. Install the MacFUSE one first, then sshfs. After you have installed these two files, open up sshfs and connect to lore.cs.purdue.edu with your user name and press connect. Another window should pop up (it might take a minute or two) asking for a password, put in your password and the program will mount your drive space on your desktop.
  4. To access your account with a terminal so you can submit, you'll need to use the Mac OS X Terminal (under Applications, in your utilities folder). From there, type in "ssh your_user_name@lore.cs.purdue.edu" (without the quotes). Press enter and it should ask you if you want to accept credentials or something, just type yes and enter (you won't have to do this every time). Then it will connect and ask for a password, put in your password (nothing will show up as you type), press enter and you should recognize the $ command line. You can now navigate your folders and such as you do in lab. You will also be able to turn in your projects the same as you would from a lab machine while logged in to the terminal.
You now have a recipe for working on projects at home! Please note that these steps are only for doing projects at home. You should not do this for lab. Attendance is taken to ensure everyone shows up. Anyone who turns in a lab but is marked absent will receive a grade of 0 on that lab.

Note: You can work on your project at home, but you must test your project in the lab environment to make sure that it behaves as expected. The TA responsible for grading will run your program in the lab to assign a grade.