Fall 2001
Professor Takashi Kimura
The instructions below assume that you have access to the Internet and that you are able to use the programs netscape and Mathematica on your machine. There are two ways in which this is usually done. The first is that you go to the basement of the Math-Computer Science building and log on to one of the ACS machines. The second is that you use your modem, say from your home, to call your Internet service provider (usually the modem number at Boston University) to establish a PPP connection. We will assume below that you are connected to one of the ACS machines.
Downloading Mathematica files from my Web page:
First, start up netscape by typing the command,
netscape &at the command-line prompt in an open window. This will start up the netscape Web browser. Next, go to the Math 563 Web page. The proper URL is
http://math.bu.edu/people/kimura/Fall01/563/
Under the section of the Web page labeled Course Materials, I will make Mathematica input files and Mathematica notebook files available for you for use in homeworks and exercises. To use them, you must first download these files from the class Web page to your favorite directory. For example, let's download the Mathematica tutorial file. You do so by first moving the pointer over the highlighted word tutorial using the mouse, then while holding down a shift key you should right click (with the mouse) on the word tutorial. A dialog box will pop up asking if you would like to call the new file tutorial.nb. Just right click on the OK button and the file tutorial.nb will appear in the specified your directory. (If for some reason, you wanted the file to be named something else or to be put into another directory, type in the correct path into the dialog box.) Similarly, you can download any file (whether a Mathematica file or not) from my Web page to your directory in this manner.
Inputting the notebook files into Mathematica: Before starting Mathematica, it is convenient to use the cd command to change directory into the one containing the Mathematica file which you have just downloaded. Start up the Mathematica by typing
Mathematica &in an open window. A blank Mathematica notebook window will pop up. You can now load the mathematica notebook by selecting the menu labeled File and selecting Open.... At this point, a dialog box will pop up with possible input files in your directory. tutorial.nb should be one of them. Select tutorial.nb by right clicking on it and then right click on the OK button. A new window should appear containing the downloaded notebook. You can now follow execute the Mathematica commands in the notebook as you wish.
Should you later wish to save your work to a file, just select File from the main menu and then select Save As... at which point a dialog box will pop up. You should then type in the name of the file to which you wish to save your current notebook and right click on OK. Note that if you had selected the Save button instead, you would overwritten the original file.
Finally, should you wish to print out a hardcopy of your notebook, select File from the main menu and select Print. A dialog box will appear. Right click on the OK button. The contents of the currently displayed notebook will now be printed to the I/O services desk in the terminal room in the basement of 111 Cummington Street. After printing, you can close the document by selecting File in the main menu and then selecting Close.