Introduction and instruction for use
How to use this cdrom for creating or playing interactive fiction games ?
How to use this cdrom for creating or playing abc music files ?
Some general ideas and help about Linux

                                                                                                    version française


Introduction

This live-cd was made for always having at hand a system able to deal with two kinds of langages : Interactive Fiction, and Abc musical notation. Both are not really conveniant to carry on a traditional media, it means you have to install several softwares and configure them before using them, especially if the target system was not designed for programmation.
It's based on Feather Linux


Instruction for use

This cdrom is safe to use : unless you do it on purpose, it can't affect an already installed system or files on the hard drive. But we can't offer any garanty for the safety of your data, so be sure to edit at first some backups files in the case a problem occurs. Be aware also that nothing that is copied in the /home/knoppix folder is saved for a later session if you don't active the proper command from the menu (and later restore with knoppix restore=/dev/[where_you_saved_it], or you don't copy your work manually on a floppy, a partition or an usb key.

Please note also that this version uses a generic vesa or fbdev display, and they can flicker on some hardware. If your display is not confortable to use, you can try to type at bootup "knoppix detect" and it will load the cdrom into ram and configure xf86, which is a more advanced display (this option is still in testing and development).
The keyboard mapping is in french, and you can change it at bootup with the option "knoppix lang=us" (or whatever language code that suits you needs).
In the case the system asks a password for the use knoppix, it is "knoppix". If you need to go into super user mode (root), type "sudo su".



How to use this cdrom for creating or playing interactive fiction games ?
                                                                                                    version française

Note : most options are accessible from the menu, in "apps". You can open this menu with a right-click on the desktop. Underlined names in this tutorial are commands you can run from a console. In the case you need the password for the "knoppix" user, this one is knoppix too.

You can open your work-in-progress games from a floppy, an usb key or even the hard drive. The application xfe can access those drives, they are under the /mnt/floppy , /mnt/sda1, or /mnt/hda(1) / (5) etc. folders. Edit your files with nedit (ascii editor) or jif (Inform complete IDE). You can compile your files directly from jif (several inform libraries are already included), and it's possible to do it from nedit too. But the best is to open a console (menu xshells/aterm) and type all your commands from there (and start the softwares from here as well, if you can remember their names).
For example for compiling the sample game "adventure", type in a console :

cd [-> will bring you to your home folder, called /home/knoppix]

if_samples.sh [it's a script that will copy some samples in your home folder]

cd games

cd inform

inform advent.inf


The game should be ready now !

Type :

frotz advent.z5 [play it in the console]

or

xfrotz advent.z5

or

zoom advent.z5 [will start the game in a special window]

Glulx player : zag (in java)
Multisystem player (Z-machine, TADS, HUGO, Alan, Glulx, AGT, AdvSys, Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls, Adrift, and Blorb) : ifpe (console version) et xifpe (graphical version).

In the case you get compilation errors with libraries, check the uppercase of the libraries you have and the ones in your source code.

If you need more libraries, or your own libraries, copy them in the /home/knoppix/games folder

Help about the inform langage : Inform designer's manual - Inform beginner's guide -
Help about ifpe
Help about zoom

Help about Hugo : hugo_manual.pdf
For working with Hugo the commands hc he hd are available (compile, interprete et debug)



How to use this cdrom for creating or playing abc music files ?
                                                                                                version française

Note : most options are accessible from the menu, in "apps". You can open this menu with a right-click on the desktop. Underlined names in this tutorial are commands you can run from a console. In the case you need the password for the "knoppix" user, this one is knoppix too.

You can open your abc files from a floppy, an usb key or even the hard drive. The application xfe can access those drives, they are under the /mnt/floppy , /mnt/sda1, or /mnt/hda(1) / (5) etc. folders. Edit your files with nedit (ascii editor), jed or xjed (ascii editor with a good mode for abc). You can convert your files to abc directly from jed / xjed, and it's possible to do it from nedit too, if you program yourself some macros. You can also use the program runabc. And last but not least, you can open a console (menu xshells/aterm) and type all your commands from there (and start all the softwares from here as well, if you can remember their names).
For example for working with the sample file "favoris.abc", type in a console :

cd [-> will bring you to your home folder, called /home/knoppix]

abcsamples.sh [it's a script that will copy some samples in your home folder]

cd abc

nedit favoris.abc [edit one tunebook]

abcm2ps favoris.abc [convert the whole tunebook into postscript : Out.ps]

gv Out.ps [visualise the tunebook]

abc2midi favoris.abc [will convert all the tunes into midi. If you need to convert only one, ex the number 9, you can type : abc2midi favoris.abc 9 ]

timidity favoris9.mid [will play the midi file]


Alternatively you can type the shortcut "play favoris9.mid" to play it.
"playmidi favoris9.mid" may work if the midi table of your soundcard is supported but it's very unlikely (timidity uses in fact samples for playing midi, so every soundcard that can play waves can play midi this way).

If you prefer to use runabc, there is some docs delivered with it, in the /cdrom/abc/runabc folder.

In the case you need to record some sounds, you have bplay, sound-recorder and soundtracker. Only the later is in graphic mode.

Help about abc format : abc guide (txt) - abc guide (pdf, for advances techniques)

=======

Help about fluxbox [not yet]
Help about xfce



Some general ideas and help about Linux

You can find many short introductions or complete manuals about Linux on internet, but here is a little intoduction to its concept : You can see it as several layers : one is the kernel, an other is the shell, a third one is the graphical system, a 4th one is the window manager, and after that comes the softwares running above them.

The kernel is dealing with the peripherals.
The shell is a basic interface to the operative system : the syntax is similar to unix system, an operative system older than mswindows. In command line / shell / console, it's already possible to do many things, like programming and dealing with files.
The graphical server gives windows and colors to the system. But this one can't be used alone :
The windows manager gives a desktop for the user. It's only cosmetic, but it's very useful. In comparison microsoft windows mixes all of this together, that is why there is no solution when it crashes and it is also less flexible.
It's possible to open several sessions on linux, and get back to console mode if one session crashes. In graphical mode it's possible to open several consoles and work from them, or start applications from this (it's quicker to type a command than finding an icon in the submenu of a menu in the start menu :) )
The most used window managers are KDE and Gnome. It's very close to microsoft windows because all configurations are through graphical menus. It's the easiest to use, but it needs a computer with much memory.
Other window managers are WindowMaker, Xfce and FluxBox. They are highly configurable.

On this cd the default window manager is FluxBox because it has some unique features, even if it looks primitive. I've included also xfce, which is more user-friendly.

FluxBox can group windows together, you just have to drag, with the middle mouse button, the title bar of a window to another title bar. It can do this automatically for some windows with a similar names. By default I've programmed this to aterm, dillo and nedit windows. You can ungroup windows with the same drag and drop (on an empty part of the desktop)

/.../ to be continued ...

more are in this folder, or on this file