To use the School computer you don't need to know everything in this
document (however, you should look here first if you have any
questions). If you want to try the computer out, see §
on how to login, and type
learn
to try some on-line tutorials (use control-C to abort them if you have had
enough). Note, however, that the on-line tutorials are not particularly
useful (the ones on ``files'', ``morefiles'', and ``C'' are probably the best).
The recommended editor is emacs (although see the discussion in
§ on the choice of editors), and to start it up use
emacs
(note: if emacs says that your terminal is not powerful enough, try typing setenv TERM vt100, and then try emacs again). Next hit control-H followed by t to try a tutorial on editing. To exit emacs use control-Z. This suspends the editor and enables you to reconnect to it and continue editing where you left off by typing
%emacs
Note the leading percent symbol, this instructs the computer to continue executing the most recently suspended job that starts with the letters emacs (in many cases, %e will be sufficiently specific). To logoff the workstation, type control-D or give the command
logout
If you have a suspended emacs lying around, then logout will
object, saying "you have stopped jobs". Just type control-D again to
force a logout (although see § if you wish to save files
that you have been editing).
Finally, if you are familiar with either VMS or MS-DOS, then you should turn
to § for a comparison between UNIX and these operating
systems and a table of command equivalences.