cT is a computer language specifically designed for computer-based education. Its development was begun at Carnegie Mellon University in 1985 and has been developed by David Andersen, Bruce Sherwood, Judith Sherwood, and Kevin Whitley. Its predecessors were the TUTOR and MicroTutor languages associated with the PLATO system. Currently cT exists for X Windows, Macintosh, and MSDOS platforms, with a PC/Windows version under development. Creating cT programs with graphical components can be much simpler than comparable development with (for example) the C language and X libraries. Programs written in cT on one system are generally easy to migrate to other computing environments.
At MIT we have a site license for the Unix, Mac, and DOS versions of cT. We currently have cT version 2.2 available for Athena DECstations and Suns, and version 2.0 for Mac and DOS. Faculty members interested in using cT for courseware development should contact the Faculty Liaison Office.
For more information about cT, try accessing the official cT home page at CMU's Center for Innovation in Learning (CIL).
For people not affiliated with MIT, the cT programming environment version 2.0 for Macintosh and MS-DOS is distributed by:
Physics Academic Software
Box 8202
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8202
Tel: (800) 955-TASL or (919) 515-7447
Fax: (919) 515-2682
E-mail: pas@ncsu.edu
The price is $175 for either the Mac or MS-DOS version, or $275 for both. Physics Academic Software also offers quantity discounts and site licenses ($2000 covering both Mac and MS-DOS).
Owners of cT version 1.1 for one machine can upgrade to version 2.0 for $95, which includes everything but the printed textbook and printed reference manual. Owners of both Mac and MS-DOS version 1.1 can upgrade to version 2.0 for $150 (without textbook and printed reference manual).
A version for MS-Windows is expected soon; price is not yet known.
A compatible version for selected Unix-based workstations running the X Window System is available at no cost by anonymous FTP from columbus.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.23.14). The first machines supported are DECStation, Sun SPARCStation (running Sun O/S), and HP700. At the moment the Unix version does not support color, but this will be remedied eventually. See the README file in /usr/usr/ftp/pub/ct on columbus.andrew.cmu.edu for additional information.
Documentation is included when you purchase the software from Physics Academic Software. Individual documents can be also purchased separately from the distributor as follows:
For a description of cT, and examples of programs written in cT, see Bruce A. Sherwood and David M. Andersen, "cT creates prize-winning portable physics programs," Computers in Physics, vol. 7, no. 2 (March/April 1993), pp. 136-143.
This is the start of a collection of useful pieces of cT lore and wisdom.
The ctug@mit.edu mailing list was created to provide a forum for discussion among users of the cT programming environment, with the ongoing traffic archived to a Discuss meeting.
If you are not already a member, you can subscribe to the "ctug" mailing list by sending email to "ctug-request@mit.edu" asking to be added to the list. Please specify the email address you wish the list to send articles to. If no address is specified, articles will be send to the "Reply-to" or "From" address in the mail header of your request.
Requests for deletion from the list should also be sent by email to "ctug-request@mit.edu".
Athena users can add or delete their subscription to the "ctug" list by using the "blanche" or "listmaint" programs. The list is archived in the "ctug" discuss meeting, but all "ctug" articles (except for requests to be added or deleted from the mailing list) should sent by email directly to the "ctug" list, not entered in the discuss meeting.
Note that no affiliation with MIT is required in order to belong to the users' group. Anybody with an email address and an interest in the use of the cT language is welcome to participate.