How to Print Out P121 CAPA Homework Sets

First, the good news: you can access the computer that has the homeworks on it from anywhere in the world using the "gopher" protocol (more on that below). Also, it's pretty straightforward to print out the homework to Taylor Hall.

Now the bad news: the homework sets are available only as PostScript(tm) files, so printing them at places other than Taylor may not be trivial. Also, since your PIN changes with each homework set, you do have to print out each set before you can log in to answer it! (Note: if you would like some help in figuring out how to print the homeworks at a location other than Taylor, come see me. I'm very experienced with computer systems and handling PostScript(tm) files, and we can probably work something out...)

The change from last year (not that any of you would notice it being a change, of course) is that Uhura doesn't have a "gopher" program. Calamity? No, since you do have Lynx!

(What is Lynx? It's a text-mode Web browser, simpler and faster than Netscape or IE (or Chimera, or Arena, or Mosaic, or any of the others...).)

So, I'll go through step-by-step how to do this using Lynx.

1. Logging in to your Uhura account

I'll assume that you know how to do this... If you're in doubt, or are having trouble logging in from the CAPA terminals in B&L, I have some instructions and tips that might be useful.

2. Using Lynx to get to the gopher server

Once you've logged on, get Lynx started (I have some preliminary help on Lynx here).

Now, to get to the gopher server, you can either start from my home page and select the "Physics 121" link, which goes to my Physics 121 information page, and from there select the "gopher" link, or you can tell Lynx the gopher address yourself by entering "lynx gopher://phobos.nsrl.rochester.edu/" (if you do the latter, then you'll need to cursor-down to select "Physics_121" from the list you'll see, then cursor-right to choose that, then cursor-right again to choose "Homework_Assignments"...).

(Note: you can set bookmarks in Lynx as in other browsers, so to save time over the semester you could make a bookmark that points here. If you don't know how to do this, see the tips or ask me.)

3. Choosing the homework set

Now you should have a list looking like:

(DIR) set1
(DIR) set10
(DIR) set11
(DIR) set12
(DIR) set2

... and so on. These are the homework sets; it should be clear which one you want to print out. Use the arrow keys to move to and choose the desired homework set.

4. Printing your homework

Now you should see a screen-high list of names. Use the arrow keys to move to your name (well, all the names have ".PS" after them which very likely isn't part of your name, but don't worry about that) and select it. If you don't have an early-in-the-alphabet last name like I do, you'll probably have to scroll down a few pages. (You can page-down either using the down arrow key, or do it more quickly with the space bar.)

Note: Make sure you get your own homework -- someone else's problem set won't do you any good!

You should notice that when you hit cursor-right on your homework file, Lynx starts to download the file, then stops and prints at the bottom of the screen something like the following:

www/unknown      D)ownload, or C)ancel

This means that Lynx by itself doesn't know how to display PostScript(tm) files. Don't worry about it, just hit "d" and let it download.

Once it's finished downloading the file, a "Lynx Download Options" screen will appear, giving options of various things to do with the file. You can save it to disk on your account if you like, but unless you really want to use up lots of space on your Uhura account, don't bother. What you really want here is the last choice it should give you, something like "Double-sided output in Taylor Hall 30". (If there's no choice like this that appears, let me know immediately!) Select that choice (right-arrow key on it) and in a few minutes your homework set should be ready in Taylor.

5. Getting back out

To backtrack through documents you've seen in Lynx, use the left-arrow key.

However, if you're done with Lynx for now, just hit "Q" (yes, capital Q) to quit. (You can use a lowercase q, but then it'll prompt you about whether you really want to quit...)