Computer Info
Miscellaneous Computer, OS, and Software Info
Aerospace Engineering
Penn State University
- I recommend Apple or Linux computers;
and I would NOT advise using MS Windows computers
- For computer languages I recommend C++, but we use Java
for some applications (e.g. robotics).
- One of the best publishers of computer related books
is O'Reilly Press. Penn State faculty and students
have access to ALL these books on-line.
Just go the
the PSU library , and scroll down to safari.
If this link does not work, just go to the main
PSU library website:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/, then click on
"Research Tools" then click on "E-Resource List"
- You will need to get used to SSH and SCP.
There is
info on SSH from PSU .
If you use Unix, Apple, or Linux machines,
there should already be SSH and SCP installed.
- And if you have a cable modem or DSL at your home,
then you might have a dynamic IP address (i.e. your IP
address changes each time you connect to the network).
This makes it difficult to do some things. But there are
free services that will give you a network name that you can
use, and this will automatically be associated with whatever
IP address your network provider has given you.
Some examples of this service are:
No-IP ,
DMOZ ,
and there are many others....
- You all ought to become familiar with
Linux . Linux is very similar
to Unix. Linux is very easy to use, and is actually easier to
install than MS Windows. You can get
Redhat Linux for free here , and
other versions of Linux here .
You can also install very nice
window environments, such as
Gnome
or KDE .
You can get integrated development environments (IDE)
for developing C++ code also, such as
KDevelop or
Eclipse .
You can also get
Open Office for free
(
or Star Office ) ,
so you can do the equivalent to what MS Office (and read/write MS Office
files).
Large scale CFD jobs are almost always run on
Linux (or unix) machines.
We use Redhat Linux or SUSE Linux, but
there are other good versions of Linux too:
Mandrake ,
Debian , ...
Linux is much better than MS Windows. MS Windows is bloated,
unreliable software.
- The new
Mac OS X is also very good,
and is actually based upon unix. It is reliable and very easy to use.
It also has many of the unix tools installed
automatically (e.g. shells, vi, emacs,
java, ssh, scp, ...)
- Graphics
- Compilers and Languages:
- Programs that I find very useful:
Maintained by:
Prof. L. N. Long , 233M Hammond Bldg
© Copyright 2002-2008, Lyle N. Long
Last modified: April, 2008