This is an introduction to some of the software used in the lab including operating system, the web browser, and the lab software. It mostly includes the terminology that we are going to use in the rest of the Labs.
The terminology associated with the operating system includes:
User Interface - How a person interacts with the computer system. It includes what they see and how they control what the computer is doing.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) - a user interface which is graphical. Output is typically in a window on the screen, and input is typically a mouse.
pointer - A small onscreen figure controlled by the mouse. Typically called a mouse pointer since most people control it by using a mouse. It is usually an arrow but may change to indicate various situations to the user.
Mouse Operations
The three basic things that we can do with a mouse include:
When the mouse settings in the user interface are not adjusted properly to you a double click can be mistaken for two single clicks or a drag.
cursor - Indicates where text will be entered when the keyboard is used. Typically a vertical bar. It is usually necessary to single click in a text entry area to have the cursor appear.
Window Operations
A browser is an application that let you view and navigate among web pages. There are a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Konqueror, Opera, etc. The ones that are most important to discuss for these labs are:
Netscape Navigator - a web browser made by Netscape. Netscape 7 is available on the lab machines. The latest version may be found at http://browser.netscape.com .
Internet Explorer - a web browser made by Microsoft. Some of our pages will not work correctly with Internet Explorer, especially submitting Lab Reports. The latest version of Microsofts's web browser may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/
URL - Uniform Resource Locator - the address of a web page on the Internet. They have the form:
protocol://computer/filename
for example, in the following URL:
http://webpages.cs.kent.edu/lab51/index.html
protocol = http
computer = webpages.cs.kent.edu
filename = lab51/index.html
link or hyperlink - text which may be clicked on to go to another URL, typically another web page.