Welcome to the main webpage for
Linux Programming for DrDAQ
Course content Enter chat room Send email 
to mailing list		 Check calendar

JUST A REMINDER:  at this point you should have received a welcome email from us along with a notification email from the yahoogroups.com server indicating that you have been subscribed to the iCanProgram mailing list for this course.    If for some reason you have not received notification you can subscribe yourself by clicking here .

ALSO A REMINDER that this course is being offered for free in return for a voluntary donation to Cancer Research in memory of Linda.  If you don't know how to reach your local Cancer Research charity in your country you might find info here.   For those students who are in Canada there is an online donation site here.  Please do your part so that we all win.
 
 

How does this all work?

Each of these lessons are intended to be FUN as well as instructive.

Each week a new lesson link will be enabled below.     These lessons will progress from the simple concepts to more elaborate concepts.    At the end of lesson 8 you will understand a lot more about the mechanics of writing Linux programs.

Linux is one of the most well known examples of what has become known as an "Open Source project".     Basically an Open Source project is a collaborative endeavour where a group of people get together via the Internet to tackle a software problem.

Open source projects excel at intercommunication amongst participants.    One of the most popular ways to accomplish this is to use what is known as a mailing list.

We have modelled this course structure as an Open Source project.    When you are enrolled in the course you will be added to the email mailing list for this course.      With a single email you can reach all the other course participants as well as the iCanProgram facilitators and programming mentors.

We use YahooGroups as the provider of our mailing list for the course.     YahooGroups comes with a few other features which we can also use to enhance the communication amongst students and facilitators.

One of these is a calendar feature.     We will use this to announce the dates of course material releases etc.

The other is the Chat Room.

To gain access to these additional Yahoo Group features you need to set yourself up with a Yahoo userID and password.       You do not need a YahooID and password to participate in the mailing list.

It is important that you make full use the mailing list to ask questions and/or help out your fellow participants.    It is exactly this spirit of collaboration that has made Open Source in general and Linux in particular such a success.     The course material will help you learn some of the concepts.    You will enrich your learning experience much more by asking questions of  (and by helping) your fellow students.

The iCanProgram mentors and facilitators are enrolled in the mailing list as well and are available to answer questions and provide guidance.
 

Mailing List

Mailing lists are used throughout the Internet whenever a group of people with similar interests wants to stay in touch.

Mailing lists work  a lot like a magazine subscription.    When you decide to join the mailing list you contact the central "subscription office" for that mailing list by email asking to have your email address added to the circulation list.

At that point you would be said to have been "subscribed".

When you have a question that you want to ask the group you simply compose a single email and send it to our mailing list address.
ican01dr@yahoogroups.com

 Everyone on the circulation list would automatically receive a copy of your email.    It would arrive in their inboxes just like any other email would.   It would show that you were the sender.   The major difference from an ordinary email is that any replies would also circulate to everyone in the group.

So you can see that a mailing list is nothing other than a convenient way to stay in touch with a whole group of people using email.

A mailing list has been created for your course.    All the other participants will be subscribed as will the course facilitators and programming mentors.

NOTE:
Your iCanProgram group is very large.

As such we need to be sure that our email posts to the mailing list follow some mailing list etiquette:

Chat room

Occasionally it is important that you interact with your fellow participants more directly.    Email is great but you don't always get an immediate response.    For those types of questions that demand more immediate attention there is the chat room.

The iCanProgram facilitators and programming mentors will be available for time in the chat room on an as needed basis.     Just schedule the time via an email to the mailing list.     Remember that we are an international bunch and can be as much as 12 hours different in time zone.

The chat room is a resource that you can make use of all throughout the course.

To go directly to the chat room click here.    NOTE: you will need the yahoogroups.com ID and password that you setup if you don't already have one.

What's next

At this point  you should have successfully enrolled for the course and subscribed to the mailing list.

Now  you are ready to begin your course lessons.

This Intro course has been specially designed to help you learn at a comfortable pace over the 8 lessons.   The links below will become active as the course progresses from week to week.    Previous weeks links will remain throughout the remainder of the course.

If you have questions do not hesitate to send them to the mailing list ... be sure to make your donation to cancer research in memory of Linda ... and above all have some fun learning a new skill.

Lesson for week #1:

Lesson for week #2
Lesson for week #3
Lesson for week #4


We'd like  your feedback on this course. 
Please take the time to complete the survey below.

Link to course survey

Be sure to make your Cancer Research donation so that we all can win.

bob
the facilitator