What Runs Where: Help Info

Title and description:

ahelp
Gives help on programs that are part of the Andrew System

To run:

athena% add andrew

athena% ahelp

athena% ahelp keyword

See also: olh

Title and description:

Answerbook
Description: former Sun documentation browser; please use URL below for all current Sun docs

To run:

See the Sun documentation site

Title and description:

apropos
Description: searches for strings and key words in main pages

To run:

athena% apropos search_string

See also: man

Title and description:

athinfo
Description: retrieves information about a workstation in multiple categories; can be run remotely

To run:

athena% athinfo host query

athena% athinfo host queries (prints allowed queries for host)

See also: sysinfo

Title and description:

info
Description: "pseudo-hypertext" browser for information files in GNU info format, used by many GNU applications. The second form below is most useful for viewing info files that are not linked to the "standard", system-wide ones

To run:

athena% add gnu (Sun - optional for Linux)

athena% info ( starts from a "standard, system-wide info home page")

athena% info -f infofile (starts from the given info page)

See also: man

Note:

info is only useful for finding information about gnu locker contents on Sun; on Linux, running it without adding the gnu locker will give information about many applications stored locally on the machine

Title and description:

locate
Description: searches for full path to a file based on file name or path fragment which is input. The command will print back all full paths matching the search pattern (wildcard characters are allowed). Currently this is only useful for finding things on local hard drives of Linux machines

To run:

athena% locate pattern

See also: man

Note:

depends on a "locate database" that must be kept current- typically this is rebuilt periodically from a cron script

Title and description:

man, xman
Description: supplies information from the UNIX Programmer's Manual about many UNIX commands and applications. man uses a TTY interface and xman uses an X interface. Can also be available for Third Party applications in lockers (i.e. if you run application foo in locker bar by doing add bar; foo then man foo may give you useful information). If you want information about man itself, just do man man

To run:

athena% man search_string (for a TTY interface)

athena% xman & (for an X interface, Sun only)

See also: apropos, info, locate, olh

Title and description:

olc, olc_answers
Description: online system allowing users to be connected to Athena Consultants. A user enters a question that may be answered in real-time or queued if no consultants are currently available. olc_answers is a browsing system for olc "frequently asked questions"

To run:

athena% olc (TTY interface)

followed by an appropriate keyword at the olc> prompt (typing help gives useful information)

athena% olc_answers

There is a Web version of the stock answers

See also: olh, sendbug

Title and description:

olh
Description: online Athena-specific information system, accessed via Web browser

To run:

athena% help

go to the olh Web page

See also: olc, man, olta, sendbug

Title and description:

sendbug
Description: bug reporting system for Athena software. Prompts will guide you through questions to answer concerning the problem. Please be as detailed and specific as possible. Giving exact keystroke sequences that will reproduce the problem is particularly helpful and may hasten resolution.

To run:

athena% sendbug

See also: olh, olc

Title and description:

tellme
Description: tells Athena root password, Athena cluster combination

To run:

athena% tellme root (for root password)

athena% tellme combo (for Athena cluster combination)

Title and description:

whichlocker
Description: tells which Athena locker a program is in

To run:

athena% add outland

athena% whichlocker program

See also: lookup

Note:

whichlocker will not find programs that are not in lockers but are in the Athena release instead. Currently the information database is maintained manually and may contain omissions, inaccuracies and be out of date. It is still a quite useful utility however

Title and description:

Course Descriptions & Schedules

To run:

go to the Subject Listings & Schedule page

Title and description:

cview, xcluster
Description: monitors current cluster usage. cview uses a TTY interface; xcluster uses a campus map and an X interface

To run:

athena% cview (for a TTY interface)

athena% cview printers (for printer information)

athena% cview phones (for cluster phone numbers)

athena% xcluster & (for an X interface)

Title and description:

dash
Description: places a hierarchical menu bar at the top of the screen; some entries are informational; others launch Athena applications

To run:

athena% dash

See also: olh, olc

Note:

in pre-Athena 9.0 releases, or if you log in with the "dash interface" option. dash is normally already running. In Athena 9.0 and later, the GNOME interface menus perform the same function as dash

Title and description:

Humanities Lottery
Description: runs lottery for Humanities class sections

To run:

go to the information guide

Title and description:

Freshman Housing Lottery
Description: runs freshman housing lottery

To run:

go to the lottery page; if you don't have a certificate which is needed get one here

Title and description:

Phys. Ed. Lottery
Description: runs lottery for Physical Education class sections

To run:

go to the Phys. Ed. lottery page

Title and description:

SIS
Description: Student Information Service, which allows students to access their grades, register and access other academic information

To run:

go to the SIS Web page

Title and description:

xmitdir
Description: X interface to the online MIT directory, providing information from the Registrar's Office and the Personnel Office

To run:

athena% add mitdir

athena% xmitdir &

go to the Web version

Title and description:

Course Descriptions & Schedules

To run:

go to the Subject Listings & Schedule page

Title and description:

cview, xcluster
Description: monitors current cluster usage. cview uses a TTY interface; xcluster uses a campus map and an X interface

To run:

athena% cview (for a TTY interface)

athena% cview printers (for printer information)

athena% cview phones (for cluster phone numbers)

athena% xcluster & (for an X interface)

Title and description:

dash
Description: places a hierarchical menu bar at the top of the screen; some entries are informational; others launch Athena applications

To run:

athena% dash

See also: olh, olc

Note:

in pre-Athena 9.0 releases, or if you log in with the "dash interface" option. dash is normally already running. In Athena 9.0 and later, the GNOME interface menus perform the same function as dash

Title and description:

Humanities Lottery
Description: runs lottery for Humanities class sections

To run:

go to the information guide

Title and description:

Freshman Housing Lottery
Description: runs freshman housing lottery

To run:

go to the lottery page; if you don't have a certificate which is needed get one here

Title and description:

Phys. Ed. Lottery
Description: runs lottery for Physical Education class sections

To run:

go to the Phys. Ed. lottery page

Title and description:

SIS
Description: Student Information Service, which allows students to access their grades, register and access other academic information

To run:

go to the SIS Web page

Title and description:

xmitdir
Description: X interface to the online MIT directory, providing information from the Registrar's Office and the Personnel Office

To run:

athena% add mitdir

athena% xmitdir &

go to the Web version

Title and description:

First Search
Description: access to selected commercial bibliographic databases

Go to the MIT Libraries' VERA page (follow Provider Search, pick FirstSearch) (MIT only)

Title and description:

Net Entrez
Description: allows users to search Genbank and other molecular sequencing databases

To run:

athena% add entrez

athena% entrez & (for 7.50 release)

athena% entrez2 & (for 9.00 release)

athena% Cn3D & (to run Cn3D viewer)

go to the Entrez Web page; Cn3D information is here

See also: babel, Deep VIew, molscript, rasmol, VMD

Note:

Cn3D can be used as a Netscape helper application to view molecule description files in NCBI ASN.1 format. In order to configure it (Navigator 4.x), select Edit -> Preferences -> Navigator Applications, pick New, and enter:

Description: NCBI ASN.1

MIMEType: chemical/ncbi-asn1-binary

Suffixes: val

Handled by Application: /afs/athena/software/entrez/bin/Cn3D %s

it can be configured for Mozilla in similar fashion

Title and description:

owl
Description: Online With Libraries: enables users to electronically ask questions of MIT librarians

To run:

go to the Ask Us! Web page

See also: olc under Athena Help

Note:

this service was formerly available by running the owl application but is now only available on the Web

Title and description:

Encyclopedia Britannica

To run:

go to the Britannica Web page, or use this alternate entry point. There is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus

Title and description:

Oxford English Dictionary

To run:

go to the OED Web page (MIT only); there is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus

See also: oed

Note:

the oed text-mode client is similar to, but not as sophisticated as the former ox2 text OED client that is no longer available

Title and description:

oed
Description: text-mode client for accessing the Oxford English Dictionary

To run:

athena% add outland

athena% oed word

athena% oed "prefix*" (wildcards allowed if string is enclosed in double quotes)

See also: Oxford English Dictionary

Title and description:

Shakespeare
Description: ASCII text versions of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets

To run:

athena% add shakespeare

The files are below /mit/shakespeare

or go to The Tech or elsewhere for hypertext versions with glossary and search capabilities

Title and description:

thesaurus, xthesaurus
Description: a simple online thesaurus

To run:

athena% add sipb

athena% thesaurus

athena% thesaurus word

athena% xthesaurus & (X interface; left-click on window that opens for instructions)

There is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus

See also: Wordnet

Title and description:

webster, xwebster (dictionary)
Description: simple TTY-interface dictionary lookup

To run:

athena% add sipb

athena% webster word

athena% xwebster & (X interface; left-click on window that opens for instructions)

There is also the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus

See also: thesaurus, Oxford English Dictionary, Wordnet

Title and description:

Wordnet
Description: Wordnet is a lexicographical database from Princeton University that most closely resembles a thesaurus, although it also has features of a dictionary and even an encyclopedia, and some unique ones that are best experienced by trying it out

To run:

athena% add wordnet

athena% wnb (for an X interface)

athena% wn (for a TTY interface - lists command-line options)

athena% wn option word

go to the Wordnet Web page

See also: thesaurus, Webster Dictionary

Title and description:

Amaya
Description: developed by the W3C, Amaya is a complete web browsing and authoring environment and comes equipped with a "WYSIWYG style" of interface, similar to that of the most popular commercial browsers. With such an interface, users can easily generate HTML and XHTML pages, as well as CSS style sheets, MathML expressions, and SVG drawings (full support of SVG is not yet available, though)

To run:

athena% add amaya

athena% amaya &

There is a W3C Amaya page

See also: konqueror, HoTMetaL Pro, lynx, Mosaic, mozilla, Mozilla Composer, netscape, opera, Star Office HTML Editor

Title and description:

iexplorer (Internet Explorer)
Description: UNIX version of Microsoft's Web browser

To run:

athena% add outland

athena% iexplorer &

See also: konqueror, lynx, Mosaic, mozilla, netscape, opera, Star Office Web Browser, weblint

Note:

iexplorer will run on Solaris 2.8/Athena 9.0 machines in spite of the warning message that this platform is unsupported

Title and description:

konqueror
Description: Web browser, graphical file manager and file viewer, based on KDE desktop environment

To run:

athena% add kde

athena% konqueror

There is a konqueror Web site

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, Mosaic, mozilla, netscape, opera, weblint

Note:

output is very verbose; you may want to dedicate the launch window to running it; on exit, processes related to it may take several minutes to terminate

Title and description:

lynx
Description: text-only Web browser for vt-100 capable clients. Usable over dialup

To run:

athena% add infoagents

athena% lynx

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, Mosaic, mozilla, netscape, weblint, w3m

Title and description:

Mosaic (old application- will most likely not be updated)
Description: original Web browser developed at NCSA; due to its age, does not fully support newer html elements, particularly pages with frames

To run:

athena% add sipb

athena% Mosaic &

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, konqueror, lynx, mozilla, netscape, opera, Star Office Web Browser, weblint

Title and description:

mozilla
Description: default Athena Web browser; shared development process with recent releases of Netscape (6.x and later)

To run:

athena% mozilla & (or click on WWW button on Gnome applet bar)

Mozilla's mail client can now be configured to interface to Athena mail via IMAP- this can be done in mozilla on or off Athena, installed on any machine anywhere in the world

There are newsgroup lists on the Web that have active links that will automatically invoke Mozilla's news reader. Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here

For running Java applets in Web browsers, see Web browser Java plugin issues

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, konqueror, lynx, Mosaic, netscape, Mozilla mail client,, Netscape Messenger, opera, pine, weblint, w3m

Note:

for secure transactions you need an MIT certificate. Information about getting one is here

Title and description:

netscape
Description: general-purpose Web browser. Incorporates a number of proprietary HTML extensions and Java support. Also incorporates a news reader that can be automatically invoked by links to news groups on the Web

To run:

athena% netscape & (default release 4.78)

To run other releases:

athena% add infoagents

athena% netscape-4.75 & (release 4.75, Sun)

There is a local Web page

Netscape's Messenger mail client can now be configured to interface to Athena mail via IMAP- this can be done in Netscape on or off Athena, installed on any machine anywhere in the world- configuration instructions are here

There are newsgroup lists on the Web that have active links that will automatically invoke Netscape's news reader. Some other information about News and newsgroup lists is here

For running Java applets in Web browsers, see Web browser Java plugin issues

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, konqueror, lynx, Mosaic, mozilla, Netscape Messenger, opera, pine, weblint, w3m

Note:

netscape was formerly accessed from the infoagents locker and can still be accessed from there. It was moved to the local hard drive to reduce startup time in Athena 8.4

Title and description:

opera
Description: general-purpose Web browser

To run:

athena% add opera

athena% opera &

The opera development site is here

See also: Amaya, iexplorer, konqueror, Mosaic, mozilla, netscape, weblint, w3m

Note:

the Sun version is a beta and is likely to have more bugs than the Linux version

Title and description:

weblint
Description: utility for checking validity and style of HTML pages

To run:

athena% add infoagents

athena% weblint file(s).html

athena% weblint directory(ies)

athena% weblint URL

The second form will recurse through listed directories, checking any HTML pages found

The third form will check the page at the given URL

For Web-based validators see the World Wide Web Consortium's validator and NetMechanic

See also: konqueror, lynx, mozilla, netscape, opera, w3m

Title and description:

w3m
Description: text-based Web browser; can display graphics, tables and frames

To run:

athena% add sipb

athena% w3m URL

See also: lynx, mozilla, netscape, opera, weblint