Kapitel 1

Einleitung, theoretische und praktische Bedeutung

1.1 Introduction

• is general enough to include several design strategies
• can be easily adjusted to idiosyncratic design styles
• understands user demands other than the predefined commands.

The emphasis of this course will be on principles, all exercises have the purpose to explain one particular aspect of design computing.

1.2 Computer Operations: Getting Started

In order to effectively use a computer system, some basic concepts need to be understood. A computer system is made up of a number of physical components, collectively known as hardware. Hardware is controlled and directed by a set of instructions known as software or computer programs. Software programs can be obtained from various sources and can be installed on various machines or hardware.

An operating system is a collection of software programs designed to work on specific hardware configuration. When you log into your account, you interact with the operating system. At present, in the CAD lab, we have Sun Sparc Stations running an operating system called UNIX. In order to make working with computers easier, a set of programs may be installed on top of the operating systems, known as window managers, e.g., OpenWindows on our machines. As a result, each command or process you start is displayed in a rectangular region on the screen, called windows. Windows can be closed temporarily in which case they will collapse into an icon, or windows can be quit if a process is finished and no longer needed. Commands can be entered by typing in at the keyboard or by a series of movement and clicking actions with a mouse. Some useful commands and actions are explained in Appendix A.

In some cases, you can enter a command and its result will be some information displayed on the screen, e.g., if you type date, current date and time are displayed. Other commands start a process in which you can generate additional information that can be stored and retrieved later. For example, an editor program lets you create text files which can be stored and manipulated. Thus there are computer programs and data you generate with such programs, both are referred to as files and may be stored separately with different file names. To work on a data file, you need to start the program which created that file, and then load in that data file for further processing.

Program and data files are stored in directories and subdirectories organized in a hierarchical fashion. You can move up and down a file system using operating system commands like cd, and delete, rename, or copy files using other commands like rm, mv, cp (see Appendix A for further details).

1.3 Uebung 1

1. Log in to your account.
2. Create a directory called u01 (not U01) and make it the working directory.
3. Copy a file named 01_name.dwg, from the directory: /homes2/prog/ausgabe, into your current directory and store it as 01_name.dwg where name is your name. Remember: Do not use capital letters in any directory or file names.
4. Start the AutoCad program by typing acad in a Shell window. Select the Open option from the File pulldown menu, then the 01_name file from the list in the Open Drawing window that appears. Click the O.K. button. This will load in your data file.
5. Write your name with the command TEXT in AutoCad. When prompted for a Startpoint, enter 0,0. Enter 1.0 when prompted for the Height.
6. Enter the command SAVE. The Save Drawing As window will appear. Confirm that the file should be saved under its original name (i.e., updated) by clicking the O.K. button.
7. Enter END at the command prompt to stop the AutoCad program.
8. Copy your file 01_name.dwg to the directory: /homes2/prog/abgabe.
9. Exit OpenWindows and log out of your account.

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