Virtual Programming Laboratory (VPL2.0) Tutorial
http://www.npac.syr.edu/projects/VPL/
Virtual Programming Laboratory tool enables you to write, compile, and execute parallel programs using a Web interface. You will not need to log in to your Unix account or type any Unix commands. You need a username and password in order to log into this system, and the system assigns you a semi-private user space that cannot be accessed by your classmates or other users of the NPAC systems. Yet your user area can be seen by your professor or TA, or the developer of this software.
Warning: Use Netscape 3.0 or newer versions of Netscape to run VPL. Older versions of Netscape have Javascript bugs that cause problems while running VPL.
Warning: You can have only one active copy of each window. Always use the provided "close/quit" buttons to close the activated windows. Otherwise, windows remain locked and seem to be "open" to the system although they are actually "closed".
There are four basic tools included in this lab:
Directory Manager:
allows you to manage your user directory. It consists of three frames:
The right frame is used to list directories and files.
- The icon at the top shows the currently selected directory and file. The actions selected by pressing action buttons are applied to this current file.
- The directories and files are listed in alphabetical order. To select a directory or file current click on the name of the directory or file. In order to list the contents of a directory click on the folder icon on the left of the directory name. The number of files in each directory is listed in parenthesis next to the directory name.
The left frame contains all the buttons necessary to manipulate the file space and to activate an editor or programming lab.
- Directory Buttons:
Make Dir: Makes a new directory with the given name.
Remove Dir: removes the currently selected directory. If the directory is not empty, remove the files in it first.
Rename Dir: renames the currently selected directory with the given name.
- File Buttons:
Copy File: copies the currently selected file into the same or another directory with the user-supplied name.
Remove File: removes the currently selected file.
Rename File: renames the currently selected file. This command CANNOT be used to move files into another directory. In order to do that, first copy the file into another directory, and then remove the original file.
View/Print: opens a separate window to display the contents of the currently selected file. You can print the file by using the browser's (i.e., Netscape) PRINT button.
- Edit Buttons:
Edit File: opens the currently selected file in the editor window.If no file has been selected, then it opens a scratch file.
- Lab Buttons: (HPF Lab and MPI Lab)
opens the laboratory window for HPF or MPI Labs. See below.
- QUIT: closes the File Manager.
HPF/MPI Labs:
You can select a file to be compiled by clicking on the file names in the file manager window.
- HPF Lab: opens the HPF laboratory window for compiling and executing selected Fortran 90 and HPF programs on the NPAC's DEC Alphafarm cluster with 8 nodes.
In order to manage disk space occupied by each user wisely your executable files are implicitly named in a special way. You will not be able to have several executables or see these files in the directory manager, but believe me they are saved for you somewhere!
You can redirect the output to the same directory the file is in by typing the name of the output file. If you want to move the output files to somewhere else, do it by using the file manager.
- MPI Lab: opens the MPI laboratory window for compiling and executing selected C and Fortran 77 programs with calls to the MPI message passing library on the NPAC's DEC Alphafarm cluster with 8 nodes.
In order to manage disk space occupied by each user wisely your executable files are implicitly named in a special way. You will not be able to have several executables or see these files in the directory manager, but believe me they are saved for you somewhere!
You can redirect the output to the same directory the file is in by typing the name of the output file. If you want to move the output files to somewhere else, do it by using the file manager.
Text Editor:
The embedded file editor allows you to generate new files or edit the existing ones without leaving this virtual lab environment.
Operation Buttons:
- Save: saves the file with the same name. It overwrites the previous copy, be careful!
- Save As: saves the edited file into the same or some other directory. Notice that the tutorial files supplied initially by the professor cannot be modified. In order to play with them, you should first copy them into another directory by using "Saving As" command or by copying them using "Copy File".
For problems or more help, contact to dincer@npac.syr.edu.