Tutorials

--D. Thiebaut 16:02, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

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This page contains various tutorials for getting things done with different software tools. Whenever I need to learn something, I teach myself how to use the new tool, but quickly forget it, unfortunately. From this experience I have learned that it requires less time for me to write a tutorial as I go along the first time, so that the second time I don't have to reinvent the wheel again. I try to make the tutorials informative and helpful so that others can benefit from them as well. Enjoy!

Moodle Virtual-Programming-Lab (VPL)

Tutorial	Comments
Moodle/VPL Server Setup (Python)	This tutorial provides rough directions for setting up two virtual servers that will host Moodle on one of them, and the VPL jail server on the other. This setup is used by the tutorials below on the use of VPL to test student programs.
Moodle VPL Example 1: Hello World! (Python)	This tutorial illustrates how to setup VPL to test a simple Python 3 program that prints the string "Hello World!" to the console.
Moodle VPL Example 2: Min of 3 Numbers (Python)	This tutorial illustrates how to setup VPL to test a simple Python 3 program that receives 3 numbers from the console and prints the smallest of the 3. The program is tested 3 times, with 3 different sets of input numbers.
Moodle VPL Example 3: Rock-Paper-Scissors (Python)	This tutorial shows the settings for a VPL activity that would test a Python program that plays the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The program tested is expected to get its input as pairs of letters (PP, RS, PS, etc), indicates the winner of each round, and stops when one player is 3 points above the other.
Moodle VPL Example 4: Gremlins in my File! (Python)	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity that tests a student program that reads a text file, modifies it, and stores the new content back in the original file. This requires an additional python program that sets up the environment for the first one to run, provides it the information it needs, and captures its output.
Moodle VPL Example 5: Print a 2D chessboard (Python)	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity that tests a student program that asks the user for an integer and then prints a 2D chessboard (alternating black & white cells) with that dimension. The size of a cell is a 3x3 character on the screen.
Tips & Tricks	A collection of notes, recommendations, tips, tricks, and modifications.

Dropbox/Server

Tutorial	Comments
Simple OSX/Dropbox-Based Server for iPad	Use the instantaneous sync-ing ability of Dropbox to build a simple private server for a mobile device. An iOS iPad is used in this example but all mobile platforms supporting Dropbox will work.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Tutorial	Comments
So you want to run your code on Amazon?	A minimalist tutorial showing the different steps required to run a java application on an Amazon EC2 instance. It should take you 10 minutes or so to launch an instance, upload your code, and start running it.

Hadoop, StarCluster, and Amazon's AWS

Tutorial	Comments
Tutorial 1: Running a java WordCount on AWS	This tutorial shows how to run the WordCount java program (from the Hadoop distribution, or user-provided) on a cluster of AWS instances organized by MIT's StarCluster.
Tutorial 2: Python WordCount on AWS	This tutorial is similar to the previous tutorial, and uses Hadoop's streaming facility to run python mappers and reducers

Hadoop/MapReduce Computation at Smith College

See the Hadoop/MapReduce Tutorials page for up-to-date information.

Tutorial	Comments
Tutorial #1	Running WordCount written in Java on the Smith College Hadoop/MapReduce Cluster
Tutorial #1.1	Creating timelines of the execution of tasks during the execution of a MapReduce program.
Tutorial #2	Running WordCount in Python on the Smith College Hadoop/MapReduce Cluster
Tutorial #2.1	Running a streaming Python MapReduce program on XML files
Tutorial #2.2	Running C++ programs under Hadoop Pipes
Tutorial #3	Running Hadoop jobs on Amazon AWS
Tutorial #3.1	Uploading text to S3 and running Amazon's WordCount Java program on our own data.
Tutorial #3.2	Uploading and Running our own streaming version of the WordCount program on AWS.
Tutorial #3.3	Computing the cost of maintaining a cluster of 6 MapReduce instances on Amazon's AWS
Tutorial #4	Start a server on Amazon's EC2 infrastructure
Tutorial #5: Setting up a Virtual Hadoop Cluster	This tutorial is a list of steps taken to create a working Hadoop Cluster. The system is setup on an Ubuntu desktop with an 8-core processor running Ubuntu. The virtual servers are setup using VirtualBox

MPI and C Programming with StarCluster on Amazon AWS

Tutorial	Comments
Combining MPI and MySQL with C	A tutorial showing how to run an MPI program written in C that walks directories , grab image files, identify them with ImageMagick to get their width and height, and enters the information in a MySQL database.
Create an MPI Cluster on the Amazon Elastic Cloud (EC2)	This tutorial presents the series of steps necessary to setup a simple MPI cluster on Amazon EC2. This setup is used for the CSC352 seminar on Distributed and Parallel Computing taught at Smith College.
Computing Pi on a AWS MPI-cluster	This tutorial presents the steps necessary for creating a 10-node AWS cluster with the MIT utility starcluster, and then running a parallel version of the Pi-computing program.

XGrid Programming at Smith College

These tutorials and examples are taken from the pages I maintain for the XGrid working group at Smith College. More information can be found in the Smith XGrid page.

Title	Environment/Language
Controlling the XGrid from the Command Line	Command Line
Running the Mandelbrot demo program	XCode
Tutorial Part 1: Monte Carlo	Python
Tutorial Part 2: Processing Wiki Pages	Python
Tutorial Part 3: Monte Carlo on the Science Center XGrid	Python
Introduction to the XGrid Part I: Generating histograms in parallel.	Perl
Introduction to the XGrid Part II : Creating a pipeline.	Perl
Running a C program: The N-Queens Problem on the XGrid	C
Running a Perl script on 10,000 files], Version 1	Perl
Running a Perl script on 10,000 files, Version 2: faster I/O	Perl
Running a Perl script on 10,000 files, Version 3: Batch Scheduling.	Perl
A pipeline in Perl: this version uses a graphical utility to create the batch file.	Perl
Generating Batch Files in Plist Format	PList Format
Counting the number of hosts in an XGrid	Python
Running Qt C++ Programs on the XGrid	Qt C++
Programming FAQ	XGrid

Geo-Mapping Data

Title	Description
Geo-Mapping Data with Google Charts	A very simple set of steps taken to convert a somewhat buggy CSV-formatted list of locations containing city and country names into an interactive Geographical Map showing the number of entries in the list corresponding to a given city.
Geo-Mapping Data with Tableau	Another simple set of steps needed to convert the same CSV-formatted lit of locations with city and country names into a Tableau map.

Processing and Eclipse

Title	Description
Kinect + Processing + Eclipse	A simple installation tutorial to get Eclipse all set up to run Shiffman's Kinect demo Daniel Shiffman's demos.
Skeleton Project in Processing and Simple Exercises	This tutorial assumes some basic Java programming skills. Start with the basic: create a new Processing project in Eclipse with simple animation.
Processing Tutorial: Creating a trail behind moving objects	A page presenting several options for creating a path behind animated objects.
Profiling a Processing Application with JVisualVM	This tutorial quickly introduces VisualVM (which is included in Sun's JDK) for profiling a Processing application running on Eclipse (or in its default IDE).
Playing Sounds in a Separate Thread	This tutorial shows how to create a separate thread to play sounds when various events are detected.

SQLite and Processing

Title	Description
Tutorial #1	A simple tutorial for accessing an SQLite database from Processing. This tutorial uses the Processing native IDE
Tutorial #2	This tutorial is similar in its goal to Tutorial #1, but it uses Eclipse as the IDE, requiring the setup of the SQLite libraries and class files in the Eclipse project.
Introduction to Processing	A quick introduction to the language Processing, with some references and links.

Formatting Papers with ShareLatex

Title	Description
Formatting research papers with ShareLatex	This is a short tutorial that will get you to create a skeleton Latex document formatted for the ACM publication standard
A Latex Skeleton for Technical Reports	This skeleton is simply the v2-acmsmall package stripped of most extraneous information. The full template can be found on the ACM Latex Styles page.

iBook Author Animations

Title	Description
A skeleton widget	This is not really a tutorial, but rather a minimal series of files one can start with to create a new widget by hand.
Creating a simple animation with Hype	A short tutorial illustrating how to create a 2-image animation with buttons allowing the user to go from one image to the other. .
Programming a Javascript Calculator Widget by Hand	This tutorial takes the excellent article for creating a javascript calculator by Simon Southwell and inserts it into the skeleton widget of this section.
Converting a GWT project into a Dashboard Widget	A quick and tiny tutorial illustrating how to take a Google WebKit (GWT) project and convert it into a Dashboard widget ready for export into an iBook.

Google's DSPL (DataSet Publishing Language)

Title	Description
DSPL: First Contact	A first look at DSPL with a simple example showing how to plot two columns of numbers as a function of time (years)

MatPlotLib for Python

Title	Description
MatPlotLib Tutorial #1	An introduction to the MatPlotLib Python library allowing you to generate MatLab-style graphs in Python.

Raspberry Pi

Title	Description
A simple Client-Server example on the Raspberry Pi	A simple client-server example illustrating how to control a simple data exchange between a laptop (a mac in this instance) and a Raspberry Pi.
Interrupt-Driven Event Counting	This example shows how to count events with a Raspberry Pi using user-level interrupts. The tutorial ends with suggestions to further increase the resolution and accuracy of this setup.
Raspberry Pi Communication with Processing	This example simply takes the client of the client-server tutorial of this section and replaces it with a client written in Processing 2, using communication over sockets.

Arduino

Title	Description
Introduction to the Arduino	An in-class introduction to the Arduino. Not useful if not accompanied by in-class presentation. Refer to the Arduino Web site if working on your own.
Arduino and XBee Communication	A quick presentation of communication between an Arduino sending characters of the alphabet via an XBee to another XBee connected to a Windows PC.

C++ with Qt 4

Title	Description
Tutorial #1	: Creating a simple application with VC++ 2003.
Tutorial #2	: Simple signal/slot experiment with VC++ 2003.
Tutorial #3	: Creating an application from the console (without IDE).
Tutorial #4	: Using a Python script to generate the project around a .ui file.
Tutorial #5	: Adding a debug window and facility to a form.
Tutorial #6	: The implementation of a memory module for a computer simulator.
Tutorial #7	: Using a QTableWidget to show data in a tabular form.
Tutorial #8	: A simple listView model/view example (taken from Qt's doc)
Tutorial #9	: A model/view implementation of a 2 dimensional array
Tutorial #10	: Launching a subprocess...

C++ with Qt4 and Qt4 Creator

Title	Description
Hello World (Console Mode)	: Creating a simple console Qt4 application with Qt Creator.
Read MySql Table (Console Mode)	: Access a MySql database and read the contents of a table.

C++ with Qt5 and Qt5 Creator

Title	Description
A 3-Widget "Hello World" Application	: This tutorial introduces the Qt5 environment and the Qt Creator. It demonstrates how to create a simple application with 3 widgets, two push-buttons and one text-edit to display "Hello World!"
A "Hello World" Console Application	: This tutorial introduces the Qt5 environment and the Qt Creator. It demonstrates how to create a simple console application which runs in the Terminal and outputs a simple "Hello World" message.
Adding a Debugging Window to your App	: This tutorial uses Qt5 environment and the Qt Creator. It demonstrates how to add a debugging window in a text-browser widget at the bottom of the App GUI. The text-browser can be open or closed depending on whether debugging information is needed or not.
Using a QDialog to open Text Files	: This tutorial shows how to create a simple 2-button GUI Qt5 app that opens up a QDialog to get a file name, opens the file, reads it, and displays it in a fixed-size font QTextEdit.

iOS Development in C++ with Qt5 and Qt5 Creator

Title	Description
Bypassing Qt-Creator to Push Apps to iOS Devices	: This video tutorial illustrates how to bypass Qt-Creator when this one is reluctant to push to your iOS device.
Pushing Qt Apps to iOS Device/Simulator	: Two video tutorials illlustrating the steps required to push Qt example apps to an iOS device or the iOS simulator.

PyQt3

Title	Description
Tutorial #1	: Creating a simple form with PyQt.

PyQt4

Title	Description
Tutorial #1	Creating a simple editor window in Qt 4.

PhPRunner MySql tutorials

Title	Description
Tutorial #1	: A quick intro to PhpRunner and MySql.
Tutorial #2	: Playing with SQL queries.

MySql tutorials

Tutorial	Comments
Tutorial #1 and exercises	Creating tables, generating SELECT queries.
Tutorial #2 and exercises	Update queries, and left join operations.
Combining MPI and MySQL with C	A tutorial showing how to run an MPI program written in C' that walks directories, grab image files, identify them with ImageMagick to get their width and height, and enters the information in a MySQL database.

BioInformatics Labs in Proce55ing

These labs were created as an introduction to Bioinformatics using the language Processing. Some of them are very short. Others require some amount of programming.

• Lab #0: Introduction to Proce55ing
• Lab #1: Retrieving DNA sequence from database
• Lab #2: Retrieving protein sequence from database
• Lab #3: Aligning sequences in Proce55ing
• Lab #4: Finding repeats in DNA sequences with Proce55ing
• Lab #5: Finding repeats in DNA sequences using a Web-server
• Lab #6: Playing with FoldIt!
• Lab #7: Sequence Logos with Proce55ing
• Lab #8: Sequence Logos on the Web
• Lab #9: Where/How do I get proteins?
• Lab #10: Finding the secondary structure of a protein

• Miscellaneous Links and Resources
  • E Coli sequence in FASTA format
  • A good tutorial ( pdf ) on Processing by Josh Nimoy, from NYU.

Assembly Crash Course

This is a one-evening crash-lab on assembly language. This is a good introduction to the 80X86-family assembly for students with no background in assembly, and taking a microprocessor-based course.

Creating Printed-Circuit Boards

Title	Description
Tutorial: Printed-Circuit Boards	With thanks to Paul Voss for sharing his tools and secrets!

Xilinx ISE and The CoolRunner II CPLD

Title	Description
Lab #1: Schematics: Simple gates	A first lab/tutorial illustrating how to create a digital circuit from schematics and testing its behavior with the ISim simulator.
Lab #2: Verilog	Lab 2 in the series. The same 2-bit adder, but this time in Verilog.
Lab #3: Sequential Circuit Schematics	A 3-flip-flop sequential circuit activating two blinking lights and behavior simulator.
Lab #4: 4-Bit Adder in Verilog	Lab 4 in the series. We use two modules to build a 4-bit adder made of four full-adders.
Xilinx ISE 13.4 Installation Guide	Extensive installation guide for ISE 13.4 on Windows 7 PCs

Bash Scripts

Title	Description
Building a self-refreshing Kiosk on a Mac Powerbook	A Bash script that watches when a new movie has been updated on a server, and automatically downloads it and plays it in a continuous loop, in full-screen mode on a Mac Powerbook
A bit of Bash	A short collection of useful Bash constructs.
Download many movies from YouTube and Number them	A Bash script that downloads a series of YouTube movies and renames them on the local disk using a counter.

PySerial

Title	Description
PySerial Simulator for Developing Python-to-Arduino Programs	This tutorial briefly illustrates the process of putting together a low-key Arduino PySerial simulator that can be used to develop complex Python apps that will eventually interface with Arduinos.