Introduction

(Last modified: )

We will describe the basics of HTML and LaTeX. You can read more about these in the chapters posted at the address above, click here.

We will use Emacs as a text editor, because it has special support for these (and many other) languages. But any text editor is fine, as long as it does not introduce extra characters in the file.

To save time, please make beforehand the adjustement described here to your Emacs default settings.

• Linux
  • the terminal (a.k.a. shell, console)
  • the file system: ls, pwd, cd, mkdir, rm, cp, mv, more
  • running jobs in the background: &, ^-Z, ^-C, jobs, fg, bg
  • file permissions: chmod
  • aliases: e.g., alias rm 'rm -i', asks for confirmation before removing a file
  • manual pages: man, info
  • if there is a major problem
  • printing: the department printer is in Room 644, and is called rm644
    (it is probably the default printer for most applications)
    In a terminal, do:
    • "lpq" to see the printer (and the queue),
    • "lprm JOB-NUMBER" to remove one of your jobs from the queue.
• The Internet
  • browsers:
    • use the icon, or
    • mozilla, firefox
  • e-mail: thunderbird, alpine, webmail.math.uh.edu, etc.
  • from outside
    • remote access: ssh
    • file transfer: scp
  • "important" sites
    • UH library
    • MathSciNet (reviews and math papers), arXiv at arxiv.org or front.math.ucdavis.edu (preprints), etc.
• Text editor
  • emacs (multifunctional, worth getting used to)
    • customize
    • mouse or keyboard commands
    • shell, other extended commands
    • auctex (for LaTeX)
  • many others
• HTML
  • viewing the source code
  • creating a home page (should be located in the file ~/.www/index.html)
• LaTeX
  • examples
  • sample exams
• Math softwares
  • matlab
  • math, mathematica (for formal computations)
  • R (for statistics)
  • etc.
• Windows stuff
  • ooffice