text:
How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Assembly

Now that you have selected your parts, you get to what is arguably the most fun part of the process: putting the parts together.

Tools and equipment
You won’t need many tools to assemble your computer, in fact the only one you must have is the screwdriver, but if you can get most of the following together, you’ll find things go a little easier.

Basic tools
Before you begin building or refitting a computer, you should have some basic tools:

 * 1) #2 Phillips-head (cross-shaped) screwdriver
 * 2) Needle-nose pliers
 * 3) A large level working space
 * 4) Brush

Optional, but useful tools
Some other tools and equipment can come in handy as well, such as:

 * 1) Anti-static Wrist Strap (Highly Recommended)
 * 2) An Anti-static mat can help provide a safe place to set components down.
 * 3) Spring action parts grabber.
 * 4) Electrical tape
 * 5) Wire or nylon ties
 * 6) Flashlight, preferably hands-free
 * 7) A second, working computer to swap parts, look for tips, ask for help on-line, download drivers and patches, etc. - very useful
 * 8) A can of compressed air - useful when working with older parts that have collected dust. A better alternative but also more costly, is a vacuum cleaner designed for cleaning electronics.
 * 9) Magnetic screwdriver
 * 10) Zip ties or velcro ties for cable management

Preparation
Proper preparation is the key to a successful build. Before you begin, make sure you have all the tools you will need, secure a clear, well-lit workspace, gather all the components you’ll be using and unpack them one at a time, verifying that everything that is supposed to be there is actually present. At this point you should leave the parts themselves in their protective anti-static bags, and assemble all the accompanying manuals. Now I know you want to get started, but trust me, read the manuals, check the diagrams, make sure you understand where each part goes and how it attaches. If there is anything you don’t understand, now is the time to do a little extra Internet research or call the manufacturer with your questions.

Find a dry, well-ventilated place to do your work. You should have plenty of light and if possible, you should choose an area without carpet on the floor, as carpet tends to generate a lot of static. An unfurnished basement is a good work location.

Safety precautions

 * 1) Static electricity is the biggest danger to the expensive parts you are about to assemble. Even a tiny shock, which is much too small for you to feel, can damage or ruin the delicate electronic traces many times smaller than a human hair that make up your CPU, RAM and other chips. It’s important to use your anti-static wrist strap to prevent damage to these components. Once you have the power supply installed in the case, clip the end of the wrist strap to the outside of the power supply. (Never plug your computer in while you are connected to it by a wrist strap.) This will ensure that you, the case and the power supply are all connected to a common ground, in other words there will be no inequality of charge that will allow a spark to jump from you to the case. It’s also helpful to have an anti-static mat to set the case and other components on.
 * 2) Nobody but you is at fault if you shock your components with static electricity. Make sure that you take the precautions in the previous paragraph to ground yourself from static electricity. (Note: if you really must work on a computer and have not got proper anti-static equipment, it is usually OK if you make sure that you do not move about much; are not wearing any static-prone clothing; handle components by the edges; and regularly (once a minute or so), touch a grounded object.). The case metal of your PC's power supply will usually be a suitable grounded object (please note that the metal must be unpainted). As noted above, touch it every few minutes while you are working on your PC if you haven’t got a wrist strap.
 * 3) Turn off your computer and switch off your Power Supply at the wall before installing or removing any components - if power is flowing to components as they are installed or removed, they can be seriously damaged. In order to have a computer properly grounded, you need it plugged in at the wall but turned off at the power supply and at the wall. The neutral line may be earthed.
 * 4) Never cut the grounding pin off your power cord. This "safety ground" stands between you and potentially lethal voltages inside the power supply.
 * 5) Be wary of sharp edges! Many lower-end PC cases have sharp, unfinished edges. This is especially so on interior surfaces, and where the case has been cut or punched-out. Use care and take your time to avoid cutting your hands. If your case has this problem, a little time with some sandpaper before you begin construction can spare you a lot of pain. Be extra careful not to cut yourself when installing the I/O Shield.
 * 6) Dismantling discrete electronic components such as your Power Supply or Monitor is dangerous. They contain high voltage capacitors, which can cause a severe electric shock if you touch them. These hold a charge even when the unit is not plugged in and are capable of delivering a fatal shock.

Construction
Start by putting your case down on your work surface, with the case door facing up, and open the case.

Motherboard
Find the motherboard standoffs (spacers) that should have come with the case. They are screws, usually brass, with large hexagonal heads that are tapped so you can fasten screws into the top. These hold the motherboard up off the case preventing a short-circuit. Set these aside.

Remove the I/O Shield from the back of the case where the ports on the back of the motherboard will fit, and put in the I/O Shield that came with your motherboard. There may be small metal tabs on the inside of this face plate, if so you may have to adjust them to accommodate the ports on the back of the motherboard.

Some case styles make it difficult to install the motherboard or the CPU with the power supply installed. If the power supply is in your way, take it out and set it aside (we'll put it back in later). Now locate the screw holes on your motherboard and find the corresponding holes on the motherboard plate (or tray) in the case. Put a standoff in each of these holes on the tray and position the motherboard so that you can see the holes in the top of the standoffs through the screw holes in the motherboard.

Now is the time to make sure the ports on the motherboard are mating with the backplate you just installed, and make any necessary adjustments. The small metal tabs are intended to make contact with the metal parts of the connections on the back of the motherboard and ground them, but you may have to bend these tabs a bit to get the ports all properly mounted, this is where those needle-nose pliers may come in handy.

Now fasten a screw through each of the motherboard screw holes into the standoffs underneath. These screws should be snug but not tight, there is no reason to torque down on them, hand tight is fine, otherwise you can damage the motherboard.

Once the motherboard is installed, it is time to plug the other components.

CPU

Installing the CPU, and the CPU’s heat-sink and fan, are by far the most difficult steps you’ll have to complete during your build. Here, more than anywhere else, it will pay to read the instructions carefully, look at the parts, study the diagrams that came with your CPU and/or third party cooling solution, and make sure you thoroughly understand what you are going to do before you try to do it. During the process, if anything does not seem to fit or make sense, put the parts down and look things over carefully before you proceed. Some operations, especially installing the heat-sink/fan combination, can require pretty firm pressure, so don’t be afraid to push a little harder if you’re sure everything is set up correctly.

The details of the installation process differ in slight but important ways for each manufacturer’s processors, and even within a manufacturer's product line. Therefore, for these details, you should rely on the instructions that are provided with the CPU.

The two things that go wrong the most often and most expensively (minimum of a killed CPU, sometimes more) in building one's own computer are both related to the CPU and its cooler:
 * 1) Switching the computer on "just to see if it works" before adding any CPU cooling unit. Without cooling, CPUs heat up at extreme rates (a CPU heats up anywhere between ten times and a thousand times as fast as a cooking area on your stove!). By the time you see the first display on the screen, your CPU will already be severely overheating and might be damaged beyond repair.
 * 2) Mounting the CPU cooler improperly. Read the instructions that came with your CPU and cooler very carefully and ensure you are using all components in the correct order and correct place.

If you buy a third party cooling solution for your CPU make sure you get one that is compatible with the CPU you have. "Compatibility" here just means, "Can you fit it in next to your RAM or whatever else is sticking up in the neighborhood." Most brands come with multiple mounting brackets that will suit many different chipsets, but it is best to check for compatibility just in case.

After the CPU is installed in the socket and secured in place, it's time to add thermal paste and then install the cooler. The plain metal back of the CPU, which is what you're now seeing, is exactly matched by the bottom plate of the cooler. You add thermal paste only on the CPU, never on the cooler's surface. Very little is needed. The two flat metallic surfaces will spread the paste between them, and it will spread a bit more when it becomes hot. (The cooler surface may have a protective piece of film over it; don't forget to remove it. But see below for the possibility of "thermal pad" being supplied, instead of paste. This is rare nowadays, but read the instructions.) A pea-sized dot is the amount usually advised, though some people make a thin "X" on the CPU surface, and some draw a line. (There are numerous videos on YouTube advocating one or another, some with photos using glass plates.) Don't overdo -- you don't want paste squeezing out the edges. Some people suggest spreading paste over the whole surface, then cleaning it off with a razor blade, then adding the pea. The idea is to close invisible imperfections in the metal. This is probably overkill, and involves extra handling of the CPU, never a good idea. Try not to touch the mating surfaces of the CPU and cooler -- the oils from your skin will impede heat transfer. You should receive a tube or applicator of thermal paste in the CPU or cooler package, some CPU coolers come pre-applied with thermal paste (such as AMD's wraith cooler), you can optionally add your own to the CPU as extra or continue with the pre-applied compound. If your CPU didn't come with thermal paste and the cooler didn't have any pre-applied, thermal paste is readily available from most computer retailers.

''See Arctic Silver Instructions for more info on how to apply and remove thermal paste/grease. (It was written to be specifically for Arctic Silver paste, but the same techniques can be applied to other brands of thermal paste.)''

If using a thermal pad supplied with your cooler, make sure you remove any protective tape from the die just before installing and do not get it dirty - and do not combine thermal pads with thermal paste, it is either one or the other. Then, check that you install the cooler in the right orientation and that you set it flat on the CPU die without exerting undue pressure on any edges or corners - the latter can make small pieces of the die break off, killing the CPU.

One option you may consider, before installing the heat-sink, is to "lap" the heat-sink, which means to smooth out the bottom surface. To do this, you will need a very flat surface; a piece of thick window glass will work. Fasten your sandpaper on the flat surface, invert the heat-sink on the sandpaper and sand in small circles, applying minimum pressure. Check frequently and when you see a uniform pattern of scratches, switch to finer grained sandpaper (the numbers go up as the sandpaper is finer, so something such as 220 is coarse while 2000 will be very fine.) Remember that you are not trying to remove any material, just polish out surface irregularities. If you get it right, you should have a surface which feels completely smooth to the touch (but don’t touch it, the oil in your fingers can cause corrosion of the fresh surface) with a mirror finish. Some companies producing heat-sinks lap the surface themselves, so if the surface already looks like a perfect mirror, leave it alone. A lapped heat-sink is more effective as it will have better surface contact with the chip.

Tighten the cooler using only the specified holding devices - if you did everything right, they will fit. If they do not fit, check your setup - most likely something is wrong. After mounting the cooler, connect any power cables for the fan that is attached to the cooler.

As an aside to the instructions above, it has been my personal experience that fitting the CPU and heat sink is best done on a supportive surface (a telephone directory on a table in my case) prior to installation, to avoid excessive flexing of the motherboard.

A last note: if something goes wrong and the cooler has to be removed (like maybe you realize you didn't take the protective film off the cooler surface), the paste will have to be removed from the CPU for the restart. Don't panic! All it takes is a coffee filter (not paper towels or anything else that will leave fibers) and a little isopropyl alcohol (from the drugstore). Thermal paste removes easily with a little gentle rubbing. Work from the outside edge in.

If you've got the CPU and its cooler installed, and the motherboard in the case, you’re over the hump, there are just a few more easy pieces to go before that momentous first power-up.

Memory slots

Next, you will need to install your RAM (random access memory). Find the RAM slots on your motherboard; they will look something like the picture on your left. To install the RAM modules, first push on the levers (white plastic in the picture) on either side of the DIMM socket, so that they move to the sides. Do not force them, they should move fairly easily.

Put the RAM module in the socket. Line up the notch in the center of the module with the small bump in the center of the RAM socket, making sure to insert it the right way. Push down on the module until both levers move up into the notches on the sides of the module. There should be a small "snap" when the module is fully seated. Although this does require a fair bit of force, do not overdo it or you may break the RAM module.

Take a good look at your seated RAM, if one side seems to be higher than the other, odds are it is improperly seated - take it out and try again. As you handle the RAM, try not to touch the copper stripes you can see along the bottom edge, as doing so is the best way to damage the part.

Start adding RAM at the slot labeled "Bank 0" or "DIMM 1". If you do not have a stick in "Bank 0" or "DIMM 1" the system will think there is no RAM and will not boot.

On motherboards with 4 slots, you'll see alternating colours. For example, slot 1 is blue, slot 2 is black, slot 3 is blue, slot 4 is black.

If you were to put 16 gigabytes of RAM in your personal computer, it is best to use dual channel 8 GBx2 sticks. Put the first 8 GB stick in slot 1, and put the 2nd stick in slot 3 (the two slots that are blue) - leaving slot 2 empty. This will give you better performance, than putting 16 GB in slot 1 alone.

Power supply
Installing your power supply is pretty straightforward, if it came with your case it was pre-installed and if you took it out earlier to get the motherboard in, now is the time to put it back. Otherwise a few moments of screwdriver work will get the job done. Generally there will be a bracket on the top of the case where the power supply is mounted and a few screws used to fix it in place. Some cases place the Power Supply differently, see the documentation that came with yours.

Some power supplies come with modular cables, so you can plug in only those you’ll be using; now is a good time to figure out what you’ll need and plug them in. Other power supplies have all the cables hardwired in, you’ll want to separate out the ones you’ll need and neatly coil the remainder somewhere out of the way.

If your power supply has a switch to select 115 V or 220 V make sure it is set properly, this is important. Many newer power supplies can automatically select and don’t have such a switch.

Once you get the power supply installed make sure you check the motherboard documentation carefully for the location of the power sockets. You may then connect the main power, a 20 or 24 pin plug, into the motherboard. There may also be an additional four or eight pin power lead that needs to be plugged in to the motherboard (the CPU power connector) usually located near the processor socket.

Graphics card

If your motherboard or CPU has a built-in graphics adapter you want to use (like Intel HD Graphics), skip this section.

If you have a PCI Express video card, install it into the PCI Express socket. Your computer will have a few of them, but choose the one which is most convenient for you and will allow you to fit it into the desktop case easily. Check your motherboard manual for instructions.

When your card is properly installed the line formed by the top of the card will be exactly perpendicular to the motherboard, if one side seems to be higher than the other, chances are that it is not fully inserted, press a little harder on the high side or pull it out and try again.

Installing drives
Next install the storage drive and optical drives.

How a drive is physically installed will depend on the case.

Most drives are SATA (Serial ATA) which use simple, small cables for a data connection. The ends of the cables are L shaped, just look carefully at the cable ends and the connector on the drive and match them up. Only one drive can be connected to each SATA port on the motherboard.

Next install the SATA power cable. Some SATA drives also have a molex power connector - make sure you connect only one of these ports to the power supply, connecting both can damage the drive.

Newer SSD's will often use the PCI Express standard; for those, follow the same instructions as you would do for a PCI Express graphics card.

Other connections

In order to turn the computer on, you will need to connect the power button and while you are at it, you might as well do the reset buttons and front panel lights as well.

There will be a set of pins, usually near the front edge of the motherboard to which you will attach the cables sometimes already connected to the front of the case, or if needed to be supplied with the motherboard. Most of the time the plugs will be labeled as the pins they will connect to in the motherboard, there they can be difficult to read since the print is very small or you may not be in the right orientation to do so. The documentation that came with your case and motherboard should tell where these connectors are.

In addition, you can connect any case-specific ports if they are supported by the motherboard. Many cases have front mounted USB ports and audio jacks.

Prepare for power up
Some people will put power to a system several times during assembly and for experienced builders this may serve some purpose. For first timers though, it’s best to assemble a minimal complete system before powering up. Minimal because that way there are comparatively few potential sources of trouble, complete so that you can test everything at once and because the fewer times you have to put power to an open machine, the better..

If you’ve been working along with us you should now have such a minimal system put together. Briefly this includes a case with a motherboard in it, a processor (and its cooling unit) and some RAM plugged into the motherboard, hard and floppy drives installed, and some kind of video available. If your motherboard has built-in video, you might want to use that for this first try, even if you are going to install a video card later.

For this test, you’ll want to have the computer open, so that you can see all of the fans, and you’ll need to connect a monitor and a keyboard and a mouse (OK, you don’t really need the mouse . . .)

Monitors will either have a VGA, DVI, HDMI (see picture, as they are a lot less apparent than PS/2 / USB by comparison) or for newer ones, a Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 plug. Most monitors use HDMI connectors, and so most graphics cards have HDMI output. If you have one type of plug and the graphics card has another, you can easily buy an adapter. Some cards even come with one.

There are two standard connectors for mice and keyboards; PS/2 connectors and the more modern USB connectors. Plug the mouse and keyboard in the appropriate slot.

Note: If you intend to install an operating system from a boot CD or floppy, or modify BIOS settings you will need to use either a PS/2 keyboard, a USB to PS/2 converter, or a motherboard that supports USB devices. Otherwise your keyboard will not work until the operating system has loaded USB drivers.

Once you have this all set up, it’s time to double check, then triple check that you have made all the necessary connections and that you haven’t left any foreign objects (where’s that screwdriver?) in the case.

Power up
Take a moment to check one more time that everything is as it should be. On the first power up, you will be observing the computer itself to confirm the cooling system is working correctly, making sure that your fans work. The first thing to look for is that the CPU cooler fan spins up, if it does not, cut the power immediately. This fan should start up right away. If it does not, then something is wrong and you should shutdown the computer immediately. When you are ready remove your wrist strap, turn on the monitor, then press the power button, and observe the inside of the open machine. (Do not touch any part of the inside of the machine while it is powered up)

If the CPU fan spins up, check that all the other fans that should be spinning – case fans and fans on the power supply and video card (if installed) are also spinning. Some of these fans may not spin up until a temperature threshold is passed, check your documentation if anything is not spinning.

If the fans spin, you can turn your attention to the monitor, what you are hoping to see is the motherboard’s splash-screen, usually featuring the manufacturer’s logo. If you see this, take a moment to bask in the glow, you’ve built a computer!

If this happy event does not occur, if smoke appears, or if the computer does not do anything, unplug the power cord immediately and check the steps above to make sure you have not missed anything. Give special attention to the cables and power connections. If the computer does appear to come on, but, you hear beeps, listen carefully to the beeps, turn the computer off, and refer to your motherboard's manual for the meaning of the beeps. Some boards have an optional diagnostic device, usually a collection of LEDs, which when properly plugged in will inform you of the nature of the problem. Instructions for installing this as well as the meaning of its display should be in the manual for the motherboard. If the computer turns on but the only thing that comes on is your power supply, turn it off. This probably means something is shorted, and leaving it on could damage the parts.

If all is well it is time to turn the computer off, and close it up. Then you may want to turn it on again and set certain options in the computer's BIOS/UEFI (usually by pressing 'F1' or 'Del' a few seconds after boot.) These options will be explained in the motherboard manual. In general, the default options are OK, but you may wish to set the computer's hardware clock to the correct time and date. The BIOS/UEFI is also where you determine the default boot order of the system, typically F\floppy, then CD-ROM, then Hard Disc.

If you want a further quick test before you install an operating system, you may find a bootable Disk or USB flashdrive such as Knoppix extremely useful.

Additional hardware and peripherals
Now that you have a working system it’s time to think about installing an operating system, which is covered in the next section. It’s best to leave the installation of additional components (like expansion cards, and second video cards) and peripherals (printers, joysticks, etc.) until after the OS install in order to allow the plug n’ play features of the OS to do their trick.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Assembly


text:
How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Software

Now that you’ve got a functioning computer, you’ll need to install some software if you’re going to do anything with it. An operating system or two must come first, then hardware drivers (so that the operating system can access your hardware) followed by security software and utilities. And that’s as far as we’re going to go with you, but you’ll also want to install some application software – games, word processors, databases, programming languages – whatever floats your boat... That’s pretty much the point of this whole computer business after all, though I hope you’ve found the journey of building it yourself has been worthwhile in its own way.

In this section we’ll consider what software you’ll want to install and how you might go about doing so.

BIOS updates
One important step that can be required as the starting point after you have a working PC, depending on how stable your BIOS is (bugs or any lacking specific software and hardware support), is to do an update of it (called "flashing" the BIOS). This step can be overlooked if you are sure that any later versions of your BIOS will not solve any issues or requirements you have. The simplest way as an initial step is to, find another computer, download the flash update and put it on a USB thumb drive (or another a bootable support media) and boot the new computer with it. If you do not have another computer or thumb drive, you will need to put off this step until after you install the operating system (you can also use a boot disk that permits you to get an OS running out of it) to get the new computer connected to the network.

Operating system(s)
If you have a workable machine that recognizes the basic hardware (CPU, memory, HD, mouse and keyboard) you can now start installing an operating system (OS). You may select from several available on the Internet or from your local computer store.

Options can be varied, there are many operating systems to choose from, including commercial ones like Microsoft Windows (of which the current version is Windows 11 version 22H2) or free ones like GNU/Linux distribution (a free software operating system) or BSD. It all depends on the uses you will be giving to your machine (function and required software) and the price tag you are willing to pay and the support you require. Simply put, can you accomplish your day to day tasks with the software that will run under the operating system in question? Do you require some special software availability, ability to run on older equipment? Have you considered the costs? Determine your needs before installing an operating system.

Note that you also have the option of installing more than one operating system in what is called a multiboot setup. Having installed an OS, you can always install another later. The complexity of doing so may vary, depending on how the last one automates (or not at all) the process. If your multi-boot setup is Windows-only, install the oldest Windows version first.

Installing Windows
The installation of Windows is relatively easy. Push the power button on the front of the PC, put the DVD-ROM in your optical drive or insert the USB, and follow the on-screen instructions (you may have to configure your BIOS to start with the DVD or USB). If you are doing a Windows-only install, just allocate all of the hard drive to Windows.

Some people find that it's useful to create separate partitions for the operating system and data. This means that if something goes wrong with the operating system, the partition can be formatted and the operating system can be reinstalled, possibly without losing data. If you have already allocated the whole disk to 1 partition and you want to change it later, you can do so and create new partition (from the existing partition) using Disk Management in Windows Vista and later or use a third-party tool.

If you are installing Windows on a RAID drive, or a SATA drive in some cases, you are going to have to provide drivers to the Windows installer so that it can access the hard drive on the raid controller. At the prompt where you are asked to choose a partition, you can click Load Driver and browse (or ask Windows to search) for the driver. Unlike Windows XP, you are not limited to floppies; a USB flash drive suffices.

It's a good idea to save your license key for windows in a safe place in case reinstalling becomes necessary.

Installing Windows to dual-boot with GNU/Linux
If you are dual-booting, some extra factors must be considered. NTFS, which is the default file system that Windows uses, is fairly well supported in Linux. NTFS-3g has reached a usable stage, with users reporting no data corruption or loss during ordinary use of the latest versions of the driver, providing GNU/Linux users with a reliable way to read and write NTFS partitions. This system is now in widespread use and most up-to-date Linux distros will support the NTFS file system. Previously only read support was safe, and this may still be the case for some distributions. However, NTFS does have some advantages over FAT32, in that a 4GB file size limit no longer exists. Though Linux supports NTFS, Windows does not have built-in support for any of the standard GNU/Linux file systems. However, there are Windows applications, such as Ext2 IFS that can be used to read/write ext2 and ext3 systems.

When it comes to partition the hard disk(s), remember to leave space for GNU/Linux (a good amount is on the order of a third of your total hard disk space). You may want to have a spare FAT32 partition (of around one third of your disk space) on which to share documents between Windows and GNU/Linux. Though this will most likely not be necessary unless you are using a distro which cannot read/write NTFS. You should also modify the partition table as necessary - you may not need as much space for Windows or you may need more in your FAT32 transfer area. But you must ensure that you leave at least 30 GB for your Windows installation, since the standard installation of Windows takes up about 10-15 GB of hard drive space, and it is always wise to leave extra on, to allow for any changes that may occur. Windows 8 in particular blocks installing on drives less than 16GB (20GB for 64-bit) free space. If you have 16 GB or higher RAM, you'll need more space.

Installing GNU/Linux
The primary problem faced in installing GNU/Linux is choosing between distributions. Of the many variants of GNU/Linux, Fedora, SuSE, and Ubuntu are generally recommended, as they are updated regularly and compatible with a broad range of hardware:

 * Ubuntu, widely regarded as one of the easiest to use versions of GNU/Linux. The amount of community documentation and support makes this a solid choice for a beginner.
 * Fedora, a distribution known for it's pursuit of leading edge tech while remaining stable.
 * openSuSE, A feature rich distribution and relative of SUSE Linux Enterprise.
 * Debian, not feature packed, but a very stable operating system and a solid base for learning more about GNU/Linux.

Some GNU/Linux variants may support hardware that these do not. If you have obscure or old hardware, you may want to search forum sites for various GNU/Linux variants to ensure compatibility. For example, Puppy Linux is a small Linux distro designed to run on older systems.

For example, let’s consider Ubuntu. It's a variant of Debian, and is the current standard for easy-to-use GNU/Linux distributions. One can download the .iso image or order a DVD (containing a combined installation and Live disk) from its website. An .iso is nothing more than a special file format that your CD drive burning software uses to create a copy of the software, in this case a copy of Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

The installation of most distros GNU/Linux is relatively easy. Push the button on the front of the PC, put the disk in your optical drive, and follow the on-screen instructions. By default, the installation version of Ubuntu will erase all files on the hard drive and partition 1.8 GB for the OS. If you want to customize, follow the on-screen instructions carefully. The LiveDVD version does not erase your hard drive and is intended solely for a user to test drive Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

When installing a GNU/Linux distro, you may be asked to choose between alternatives – whether to run KDE or Gnome (The desktop interfaces), for instance, or to install vi or Emacs or nano (Text editors). If the terms are unfamiliar a quick Google search will usually yield answers. Most choices have comparable features, and the choice usually comes down to preference. It can be a good idea to "Distro hop" or trying multiple different distros in a short period of time, to figure out what works best for you.

Security
After installation, security should be your priority.

Updates
From time to time, software companies and independent programmers release new and improved versions to their software; these are known as updates. Updates usually install new features or fix problems. Usually, you should download the latest updates to improve system performance though it's sometimes wise to wait a little while to be sure the update itself does not cause problems. Many programs update themselves and this process is known as an automatic update. If you have to manually update your software, do so through the software developer's site, not through a secondary source. This approach will reduce the chance of contracting a virus or other piece of malicious software.

Windows
A newly installed computer can be attacked within moments of being connected to the Internet. In severe cases, the attacks can render a system unbootable or make a second reinstallation faster or easier than manually removing the malicious programs causing the problems. To avoid having your new computer attacked, install a firewall, or activate the one that came with your OS. Both Windows and GNU/Linux have in-built firewalls: in some GNU/Linux distributions, it is enabled by default. Windows 10 includes an antivirus, but you should update to the latest version for better protection against current threats.

As soon as you are on the Internet, run your operating system's update facility to fix any security flaws that have been found since your CD was printed. To do this before Windows 10, simply click on your Start Menu, click on 'All Programs', and then click on Windows Update, and follow the instructions. On Windows 10, open Settings and click Update and Security.

GNU/Linux
The method of updating your GNU/Linux system varies greatly from distribution to distribution.

For SuSE, there are two ways:
 * 1) YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), the default package manager/system management tool for SuSE
 * 2) ZENworks updater, a GUI-based updating service

For Fedora, type

as the root user inside a terminal window.

It is perhaps easiest to update the OS from Debian-based distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu and Linspire. For Debian and Linspire you type the following into a terminal window while running as the root user:

Ubuntu has you run sudo to switch run a program as root. Type the following into a terminal:

Most distros, including Ubuntu, also have a GUI-based updater program.

Automatic updates
If your computer will be running overnight (or if you're just lazy), it may be good to have your computer update itself.

Debian-based (LINUX) - Debian-based operating systems (including Ubuntu, but Ubuntu already has a more simplified automatic updater) will typically use a cron script for receiving automatic updates by the console (although you can download some GUI-based updating tools - that is, if you're working with a GUI).

Ubuntu (LINUX) - As Ubuntu is based on Debian, you can use a cron script, but an easier way of doing it (if you're using GNOME) is to go to the "System" menu, then "Administration", then "Software Sources". Then open up the "Updates" tab and select "Automatic updates", also select "Install security updates without confirmation".

SuSE (LINUX) - SuSE uses YaST to manage updates, packages (applications), and system settings. YaST can be configured to use automatic updates in the YaST control centre.

Microsoft Windows - Microsoft has always used the Microsoft Update service (formerly called "Windows Update") to manage updates both automatically and manually (although by default it usually is a automatic update). Windows XP onwards reminds you when the computer is needed to be restarted if an update requires one via a special icon in the notification area.

Windows 10 provides an option of setting active hours; the computer will not restart to complete updates during that time.

If you have Windows 10 Pro, it is possible to defer (postpone) updates for up to one year or one month, depending on the type of update. It is also possible to completely stop updates for up to 35 days (with the caveat that all updates will then have to be installed before the updates can be stopped again). To configure such options, go to Settings>Update and Security>Advanced Options.

Anti-malware
Anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-spam programs (which generically are all called anti-malware programs) of commercial quality or better can be found for free online quite easily and can protect your computer from various nasties you might get while surfin' on the Internet. Windows programs are listed in the software section below. Third-party firewalls for Windows are recommended as the built-in default one Windows provides is not nearly powerful as, for example, ZoneAlarm, a third-party Firewall solution that not only monitors incoming traffic, but monitors outgoing traffic as well. The latest versions of Windows 10 include Microsoft Defender, a antivirus and antispyware program.

Security software is important and should be set up first. The best procedure is not to connect to the Internet at all until your choice of anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software is installed and activated, then connect to the Internet and update each of these programs, though it is usually fine to connect to the Internet for the purpose of downloading it.

Once secured, your system should be safe for prudent Internet browsing; however, remember to schedule regular scans and keep your security software up to date.

Drivers
Now that your computer is relatively secure, you will need to install software to control your various hardware components. This type of software is known as a driver.

Although you may find that all of your hardware works out of the box, consider downloading the driver straight from the company's Internet site. This will ensure you have the latest edition of the software. Knowing where to download the driver is also good in case you lose the CD that came with the device.

If you do not have a fast Internet connection (broadband), the company usually provides an option to receive the driver CD in the mail, in which case you'll want to use the CD you have now and update the driver later. Even if something seems to be working fine, downloading new drivers may help increase computer efficiency, though there is always a risk that a brand new version may break something. Downloading drivers for your motherboard's chipset can often help if you are having a problem. Finally, many monitors will not go above a certain refresh rate without the proper driver, which may be of great concerns to gamers.

If you are using Microsoft Windows, you can generally find drivers for your selected hardware on the manufacturer's website. Most GNU/Linux systems already have all of the drivers installed, with the exception of proprietary modem and graphics drivers. If you can't find the driver you need, a simple Google search will often yield the best results. Windows Update also often can install the latest drivers (though you may have to go to Windows Update to install it, as they may not be considered important).

Software
Before buying software for your new PC, remember that there is an abundance of useful software, free for downloading, available on the Internet. From web browsers to word processors to graphic manipulation programs, there is plenty of software available online.

Though most of what is available is safe and useful, it’s always a good idea to do a little research and make a backup before installing anything new. The following are some proven and reliable programs that are available, free (or gratis), for individual use (and sometimes more; check the license).

Broadly speaking, there are three types of licenses:
 * Proprietary - This is the type of license that comes with most software that is purchased. Source code is not available, and you cannot make copies for others.
 * Freeware - The software is zero cost (free), and you may share copies with others. You cannot make copies and sell them, however. The source code is usually not available.
 * Free software/Open Source - The source code is available. This means that if you know how to program, you can make and distribute variations of the program yourself, fix bugs you find, etc. You may share copies with others, and you may pay for the software on disk, or download it for free. (The "free" in "free software" refers to "free" as in "free speech", not as in "free beer".)

Of course, there is a lot of overlap and many exceptions to these generalizations. Be sure to check the license that comes with your software to be sure of what your rights are!

Windows
To ease out the installation process for utilities and other basic software, you can use Ninite. Check all the software that you need and download the installation utility. However, note that this utility will only install in your Windows partition and you cannot manually specify the directories in which you want the applications installed.
 * Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome/Chromium, or Microsoft Edge.
 * E-mail Client: Windows Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird
 * Office Suite: LibreOffice, Office 365, Microsoft Office
 * PDF Reader: Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader
 * Photo Editing: Paint.net, GIMP, Microsoft Paint
 * Media Player: VLC media player, Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player
 * Anti-malware: Malwarebytes, AVG AntiVirus, Avast Antivirus, ESET NOD32, Microsoft Defender
 * Security: Spybot – Search & Destroy, ZoneAlarm Firewall
 * Utilities: 7-Zip, Rainmeter, Copernic Desktop Search
 * Disc Tools: InfraRecorder, Nero Multimedia Suite
 * Instant Messenger: Pidgin, Trillian, Telegram

You can also get many of these programs (or alternatives) from the Microsoft Store.

GNU/Linux
Unlike Windows, on a GNU/Linux system the majority of the software that you will want for everyday use of your computer is usually included out of the box, or handled by the package manager provided by your distribution. Many distros that focus on ease of use have a graphical interface for installing software that is similar to a mobile phone app store.

As an example, to install the software git on Ubuntu, only a single command is needed

The sudo command confirms you have permission to use apt. The apt command calls the apt package manager. install lets apt know you want to install the following item, in this case git.

Some distros contain an additional package manager, typically either Flatpak, or Snap. Applications installed from these managers run in their own sandbox that limit their access to the rest of the system, increasing security.

If they aren't already installed by your distribution:
 * Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome/Chromium, Konqueror or Opera.
 * Email Client: Mozilla Thunderbird, GNOME Evolution, or Kmail
 * Office Suite: LibreOffice, or Calligra Suite
 * Instant Messenger: Pidgin or Kopete.
 * Media Players: Kodi, GNOME Videos, Rhythmbox, Amarok, or VLC Media Player.
 * Movie/DVD Players: Xine or MPlayer.
 * Disk Tools: Brasero, GParted
 * Windows Compatibility: WINE, Proton, or Lutris
 * Virtual systems: QEMU or GNOME Boxes.
 * Photo Editing: GIMP or Darktable
 * Art: Krita (2D Raster), Inkscape (2D Vector), Blender (3D Art)
 * Audio: Audacity, LMMS, Ardour

Open source
For additional software some excellent sources of free and open-source software are
 * GitHub, GitLab, and SourceForge - Sites featuring many Open Source projects.
 * Portable Apps - Provides portable versions of applications meant for running on USB keys.
 * AlternativeTo - Provides lists of alternatives to common software.
 * Free Software Directory

Proprietary
Of course, it is also possible to buy copies of software.
 * Microsoft Store - Sells software for Windows 10 and 11.
 * Xbox Game Pass - Microsoft's subscription game service, available for Windows 10 and 11.
 * GOG Galaxy - Sells games without DRM.
 * Steam, Humble Store - Large markets of games and some software.
 * itch.io - Indie game host
 * Epic Games Store, Origin, Uplay, Battle.net - Publisher focused game sellers.
 * Adobe Creative Cloud - Sells Adobe creative products through a subscription model.
 * Autodesk - Sells engineering and 3D Software.

title: How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Software


text:
How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Conclusion

If you're serious you’ve probably at least glanced over this book as you considered building your own computer, and I hope it has inspired you to go ahead with that project. Throughout we’ve tried to steer you clear of some of the pitfalls and alert you to some of the safety issues involved, and in so doing, we have undoubtedly overemphasized the dangers and difficulty. In sooth, it’s pretty hard to hurt yourself building a computer and most people get through their first build without burning up any parts. With a little planning, anyone who can use a screwdriver can build a computer.

The computer you build will always mean a little bit more to you than one you buy, not least because you designed it yourself and will no doubt be upgrading it from time to time for years to come. You may find a little smile of satisfaction creeping onto your face each time you hit the power button, and I think you’ll find that smile is an ample return for your time and effort.

Lastly, if you go through with it and build your own PC, you’re bound to run into something we've missed here; a problem we didn’t anticipate, something we forgot to mention, or something that has changed recently. If you do, please come back here and add to or change this book. You don’t have to know everything to contribute, just one thing that’s true. If this guide has helped you at all, think of it as payback.

title: How To Assemble A Desktop PC/Conclusion


text:
Dichotomous Key/Annelida

1

 * Parapodia
 * Present - ../Polychaeta/
 * Not present -

2: Clitellata

 * Ventral sucker formed from last six segments
 * Yes - ../Hirudinea/
 * No - ../Oligochaeta/

title: Dichotomous Key/Annelida


text: Template:Annelida

title: Template:Annelida


text:
Dichotomous Key/Hirudinea

1

 * Reversible proboscis
 * Present -
 * Not present -

2

 * Teeth
 * Present - Gnathobdellae
 * Not present - Pharyngobdellae

3: Rhynchobdellae

 * Body shape
 * Flat - Glossiphoniidae
 * Cylindrical - Pisciolidae

title: Dichotomous Key/Hirudinea


text:
Dichotomous Key/Rotifera

1

 * Male members of the species
 * Present -
 * Not present - ../Bdelloidea/

2

 * Habitat
 * The gills of Nebalia - ../Seisonoidea/
 * Elsewhere - ../Monogononta/

title: Dichotomous Key/Rotifera


text:
Dichotomous Key/Porifera

1

 * Spicule composition
 * Calcium carbonate (calcite) - ../Calcarea/
 * Other -

2

 * Spicule composition
 * Silica - ../Hexactenellida/
 * Spongin fiber - ../Demospongiae/

title: Dichotomous Key/Porifera


text:
Dichotomous Key/Cnidaria

Key to Cnidaria

 * 1: Medusa stage present.
 * 2: Medusa stage absent.

1: Medusozoa
incomplete

Cubozoa Hydrozoa Polypodiozoa Scyphozoa Staurozoa

2

 * 3: Parasitic
 * 4: Non-parasitic. Corals and sea anemonies.

3
incomplete

 * Polypodium hydriforme: Intracellular cnidarian parasite. Parasite of sturgeon eggs.
 * Myxozoa

4

 * Hexacorallia: Polyps have 6-fold symmetry
 * Octocorallia: Polyps have 8-fold symmetry

title: Dichotomous Key/Cnidaria


text:
Dichotomous Key/Fungi

1

 * Cells contain mitochondria
 * Yes -
 * No - ../Microsporidia/

2: Eumycota

 * Sexual spores produced in ascus; hyphae do not form clamp connections
 * Yes - ../Ascomycota/
 * No -

3

 * Sexual spores produced in basidium; hyphae may or may not form clamp connections
 * Yes - ../Basidiomycota/
 * No -

4

 * Motile, flagellate stages of life cycle
 * Present - ../Chytridiomycota/
 * Not present - ../Zygomycota/

title: Dichotomous Key/Fungi


text:
A Neutral Look at Operating Systems

The purpose of this book is to provide a neutral view of as many Operating Systems as possible. This book strives to provide solid information on Operating Systems without the ever-prevalent "distribution/Operating System bias".

Wikipedia has a comparison of operating systems.

Brief contents

 * 1) Unix and derivatives
 * 2) /Unix/
 * 3) /Solaris/ - Solaris Operating Environment
 * 4) /Berkeley Software Distribution/ (BSD)
 * 5) /Linux/
 * 6) /Hurd/ - GNU Hurd
 * 7) /Plan 9/ - Plan 9 (operating system)
 * 8) /Inferno/ - Inferno (operating system)
 * 9) /QNX/ - QNX
 * 10) CP/M and derivatives
 * 11) /Control Program for Microcomputers/
 * 12) /DOS/
 * 13) /Microsoft Windows/
 * 14) OS/2
 * 15) /RISC OS/ - RISC OS
 * 16) /EROS/ - EROS
 * 17) /AmigaOS/ - AmigaOS
 * 18) Aros - Aros
 * 19) AmigaOS 4.x - AmigaOS 4
 * 20) MorphOS - MorphOS
 * 21) /BeOS/ - BeOS
 * 22) /Mac OS/
 * 23) /z/OS/ -  z/OS

Extended contents
This lists the operating system variants contained in this book.
 * 1) Unix derivatives
 * 2) /Unix/
 * 3) /Solaris/ - Solaris Operating Environment
 * 4) /Berkeley Software Distribution/
 * 5) DragonFly BSD
 * 6) FreeBSD
 * 7) PC-BSD
 * 8) DesktopBSD
 * 9) NetBSD
 * 10) OpenBSD
 * 11) MirOS BSD
 * 12) Quasijarus
 * 13) /Linux/
 * 14) Live CDs
 * 15) Knoppix
 * 16) Fedora
 * 17) Ubuntu
 * 18) Distributions for New Users
 * 19) Fedora Core
 * 20) Mandriva Linux
 * 21) Puppy Linux
 * 22) Ubuntu Linux
 * 23) SUSE
 * 24) Distributions for Power Users
 * 25) Debian GNU/Linux
 * 26) Slackware
 * 27) Distributions for Masochists (just kidding)
 * 28) Gentoo
 * 29) Linux From Scratch
 * 30) SourceMage
 * 31) /Hurd/ - GNU Hurd
 * 32) /Plan 9/ - Plan 9 (operating system)
 * 33) /Inferno/ - Inferno (operating system)
 * 34) /QNX/ - QNX
 * 35) CP/M derivatives
 * 36) /Control Program for Microcomputers/
 * 37) /DOS/
 * 38) FreeDOS
 * 39) /Microsoft Windows/
 * 40) /Microsoft Windows
 * 41) Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me
 * 42) Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003
 * 43) ReactOS
 * 44) OS/2
 * 45) /Mac OS/
 * 46) Mac OS to version 9
 * 47) Mac OS X
 * 48) /RISC OS/ - RISC OS
 * 49) /EROS/ - EROS
 * 50) /AmigaOS/ - AmigaOS
 * 51) AmigaOS 1.0, AmigaOS 1.1, AmigaOS 1.2, AmigaOS 1.3
 * 52) AmigaOS 1.4
 * 53) AmigaOS 2.0, AmigaOS 2.05, AmigaOS 2.1
 * 54) AmigaOS 3.0, AmigaOS 3.1
 * 55) AmigaOS 3.5, AmigaOS 3.9
 * 56) Aros
 * 57) /AmigaOS 4.x/ - AmigaOS 4
 * 58) /MorphOS/ - MorphOS
 * 59) /BeOS/ - BeOS
 * 60) /z/OS/ -  z/OS

Authors

 * Kernigh, expanded /Berkeley Software Distribution/ chapter
 * aGGreSSor, expanded /AmigaOS/ chapter
 * Other and anonymous contributors

title: A Neutral Look at Operating Systems


text:
Hindi/Numbers

Numbers are the basic of Mathematics. Strange that Hindi numbers are unorganized unlike Sanskrit and other Southern Indian languages. Like other Sanskrit derived/Indian languages, Hindi numbers also follow decimal format.

Cardinals
Hindi cardinal numbers up to 100 have no specific standardization. Up to 20, the numbers are unique. After that each tenth number (such as 30, 40 etc) is unique. The rest of the numbers take the form of prefix of incremental digit and the base of preceding tenth number. However these prefixes and bases vary slightly and in a random manner. Although the pattern isn't regular, don't worry too much. They're just slightly different and with some practice you'd soon get the hang of it. Here are the numbers from 21 to 100. Try to follow them and find any similar pattern.

Once you have got through the numbers 1-100 the rest of the numbers are regular.

Another point to be noted in Hindi in case of cardinal numbers is that Hindi (and all other Indic languages) often use quantities like lakh and crore which are less common in English speaking countries. The opposite is true for quantities like million, billion (We are talking about the US billion which is 1 followed by 9 zeros, not the UK billion which is 1 followed by 12 zeros.), trillion etc.

Ordinals
Hindi ordinals are a piece of cake once you are thorough with the cardinals. Only the first six ordinals are unique.

As you would have noticed by now that in Hindi 'वां' acts just like 'th' in English which you can add to the end of cardinal numbers to form the corresponding ordinal numbers. If you're wondering about the irregularities of the second options, then let us just tell you that they are the Sanskrit ordinal numbers that are used often in Hindi. You just have to remember ten of them (for they sometimes appear in texts/speeches). After ten, any ordinal numbers you would encounter would be most likely in the general form of ordinal number+vāṃ

title: Hindi/Numbers


text:
Hindi/Family relations

Family relation names in Hindi are very specific to the speaker. For example, your father's brother and your mother's brother are not both just "uncle"; you would differentiate and address them using specific terms to indicate the precise relationship. These terms can vary a bit from place to place. The following are some standard examples.

Often the honorific suffix "-जी" is added to names to denote respect. Muslims (and sometimes Zorastrian Parsis), add the honorific suffix "-जान" to names to denote respect. It is very common to use when referring to or especially addressing an older relative, and sometimes for others depending on customs or the situation.

Great-grandparents
In Hindi, the prefix "great-" is given by the prefix "पर-".

There is some ambiguity when talking about great-grandparents because, for example, the term "परदादा" (pardada) can refer to either your father's father's father or your father's mother's father. Therefore, if there is a need to be more specific, spell out the exact family relation in full; e.g. "बाप के बाप के बाप" (bap ke bap ke bap), or "बाप की माँ के बाप" (bap ki ma ke bap).

Siblings & Siblings-in-law
** These two words ("साला" (sala) & "साली" (sali)) are also commonly used as pejoratives, so be careful when using them.

Cousins
There is no direct word for "cousin" in Hindi. If there is a need to be specific when referring to a cousin, then phrases like "uncle's son" or "aunt's daughter" are used. However, in general, they are simply referred to as "brother/sister" ("भाई/बहन").

Stepfamily
In Hindi, the prefix "step-" (or "half-") is given by the adjective "सौतेला".

title: Hindi/Family relations


text:
Dichotomous Key/Lycopodiophyta

1

 * Leaves
 * Quill-shaped and hollow - ../Isoetopsida/
 * Scale-like -

2

 * Location of sporangia
 * Leaves - ../Lycopodiopsida/
 * Stem - ../Selaginellopsida/

title: Dichotomous Key/Lycopodiophyta


text:
Dichotomous Key/Psilotaceae

1

 * Synangia
 * Two-lobed -
 * Three-lobed -

title: Dichotomous Key/Psilotaceae


text:
Dichotomous Key/Chondrichthyes

1

 * Scales
 * Present -
 * Not present - ../Chimaeriformes/

2: Elasmobranchii

 * Open Gill position
 * Ventrally - ../Rajomorphii/
 * Laterally - ../Selachimorpha/

title: Dichotomous Key/Chondrichthyes


text:
Dichotomous Key/Selachimorpha

1

 * Anal fin
 * Present -
 * Not present -

2

 * Dorsal fins
 * One - ../Hexanchiformes/
 * Two -

3

 * Body shape
 * Flattened - ../Squatiniformes/
 * Fusiform -

4

 * Snout length
 * Short - ../Squaliformes/
 * Long - ../Pristiophoriformes/

5

 * Fin spines
 * Present - ../Heterodontiformes/
 * Not present -

6

 * Mouth position
 * In front of eyes - ../Orectolobiformes/
 * Behind eyes -

7

 * Nictitating membrane
 * Present - ../Carcharhiniformes/
 * Not present - ../Lamniformes/

title: Dichotomous Key/Selachimorpha


text:
Talk:Dichotomous Key

This is a cool book. You might want to consider inserting to suppress of the automatic table of contents on pages like Dichotomous Key:Hexapoda (just place  as the very last line of the page, as I've done it on that page). --Andreas 10:15, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Beginner's question
MOOOOO O O

 * Regarding the difficulty in going from start to dog, little can be done about it, really. The higher taxa like Chordata, for example, are distinguished by technical characteristics that may be difficult or impossible for most people to describe.  I've been kicking around in my head some ideas about having alternate keys.  For example, next to Animalia#5, there could be a separate key leading either to a new section or new page that would use more easily identifiable characteristics.  The problem is that, especially in the higher taxa, the only really good characteristics are difficult for laymen to identify -- if there was an alternate key of some sort, it would be much more complicated to make because there would be numerous exceptions and caveats.
 * FTR, dogs are deuterostomes. Also, they have a notochord.  Once you get that far (this would take you to Dichotomous Key:Chordata), the rest of the keys you should be able to follow without too much difficulty.  (nobody's done the Dichotomous Key:Canidae yet, so you won't actually be able to get all the way down to the dog -- unfortunately, I don't think there are any very familiar animals done all the way to species yet) TUF-KAT 15:12, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * There is now a familiar species that can be traced all the way from start to finish -- humans. Like dogs, they (we) are deuterostomes and they have a notochord.  You also have to be able to count molar cusps to get all the way to the end, but the rest of it should be easy to follow. TUF-KAT 17:55, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * BTW, I should probably mention here that I have proposed moving the Dichotomous Key (and Field Guide) to Wikispecies, because it seems likely to get more attention from knowledgeable people there, and it fits in well with that project's scope. Nobody at the Wikispecies Village Pump has replied, so I'm not going to do it in the immediate future, but I think it will happen sooner or later. TUF-KAT 18:00, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Thank you very much for the answer. I think the way you implemented the glossary on Dichotomous Key:Mammalia is the most useful and intuitive way. It would be sad to loose a good book from Wikibooks, but it definitely looks like there is more connection with Wikispecies. Anyhow, this book will profit from tight linking to both Wikipedia and Wikispecies. What you should demand as soon as possible (even if you decide to move your book later), is to have a prominent link to your book, possibly even on the main page of Wikispecies. This might also draw experts' attention to this wikibook.
 * Another suggestion (from the naive novice?): I don't know if it is a good idea, but it might be helpful for some questions (like the one which opening develops first) to have a few well-known examples that would follow later down the road (e.g. "Deuterostomes (containing e.g. dogs)"). That could help sometimes in pointing to the right direction at least... --Andreas 04:29, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the advice. I've been considering ways to incorporate something along the lines of your suggestion.  I'll see what I can come up with. TUF-KAT

Transwiki:Dichotomous Key:Pachypodium
Would this book be interested in this page? Please move it into this book or mark it for deletion if it is not needed. Thanks, hagindaz 00:41, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Unused Templates
I have found a number of unused templates that seem to deal with this wikibook. Let me know if any of these are still useful:

 * Template:Animalia
 * Template:Arthropoda
 * Template:Aves
 * Template:Carnivora
 * Template:Hexapoda
 * Template:Mammalia glossary
 * Template:Mollusca
 * Template:Reptilia
 * Template:Ursidae

There may be more, but I can't find any others. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 19:07, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Each of these seems to have been older versions of the currently used ones. Since these were deprecated and unused, adding in no meaningful way to any module, this book or the wikibooks project as a whole, I've speedy deleted them on grounds of no meaningful content. --Swift (talk) 16:13, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

images
I Think that illustrations could be a big improvement. If any question will be followed with image of the choice it could be much simplier to the novice user. 192.115.235.2 12:32, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Templates
There seems to be a large number of templates used in this book. Special:AllPages/K gives: These should at the very least be categorised and even consolidated. Anyone up for writing a little description of what each of these does? --Swift (talk) 15:49, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Template:K
 * Template:KD
 * Template:KDC
 * Template:KDCO
 * Template:KDCOF
 * Template:KP
 * Template:KPC
 * Template:KPCO
 * Template:KPCOF
 * Template:KPCsubcO
 * Template:KPCsubcsuperoO
 * Template:KPCsubcsuperoOsuboF
 * Template:KPsp
 * Template:KPspC
 * Template:KPspCO
 * Template:KPspCOso
 * Template:KPsubp
 * Template:KPsubpC
 * Template:KPsubpCO
 * Template:KPsubpCOsubo
 * Template:KPsubpCsubc
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcO
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcOsubo
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcOsuboF
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcOsuboinfraounrankedsuperf
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcOsuboinfraounrankedsuperfF
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcOsuboinfraounrankedsuperfFsubf
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcsupero
 * Template:KPsubpCsubcsuperoO

2 legs errors
There are several animals listed under Animalia > 2 legs that are completely incorrect.

The only items that would fit here are "Birds" and "Other", although some amphibians only have two legs, or two legs and two vestigial legs.

 * That is correct, however, the purpose of the key at this point is to narrow down the possibilities. "number of legs" in itself is not a very descriptive term, but it is one that even the most amateur of biologists can observe. So many creatures undergo metamorphosis, such as amphibians and many arthropods, that every possibility must be considered. If you'll notice, there are some categories listed under both "2 legs" and "4 legs", in an attempt to simply narrow down the huge number of animals there are to choose from, including their various forms.
 * An additional reason for this is that, although it is incorrect, if someone looks at an amphibian and thinks "it has two arms and two legs", amphibians will still be a choice. If it is even remotely ambiguous, it is included under both. More specific features will be used in later parts of the key.Sesamehoneytart (discuss • contribs) 15:45, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

consider changing formatting
we could format it as a series diagrams in a page and all they would have to do is follow the diagram and ask simple questions, thus redusing the number of pages. also maybe have domain separate from kingdoms. the last thing i noticed is their are no definitions and to many of the questions are to specific e.g. is it a frog/shark/mammal.The point of this is to identify these thingsDucklan (discuss • contribs) 17:18, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dichotomous Key


text:
Talk:CPAM with TWW

Organizing the book
Hi, I noticed your book is growing well, and you might want to split it up into several pages for a better online-experience. I therefore suggest you to split up your book into a couple of sections. The main page should just include a short introduction (your abstract would be fine, please also explain what TWW means) and a table of contents, like CPAM with TWW CPAM with TWW/Cross-Platform Application Management With CPAM HPMS CPAM with TWW/Porting TWW HPMS to other OS CPAM with TWW/GNUstep and TWW HPMS CPAM with TWW/Authors and so on. Using subpages via "/" will give you an automatic link back to the main page of your book. Have a look at Hamster Care and How To Build A Computer how it is done there. For more information and possibilities look at the current discussion at Hierarchy naming scheme. Use a flat hierarchy (that is, all pages should be a direct sub-page of "CPAM with TWW") and avoid introducing red links or empty pages by too many subdivisions. 5 or 6 chapters should just be fine for your book as it is now. Also have a look at the discussions at User talk:Ojmorales0002 and Talk:How To Build A Computer for successful recent conversions. If you need any help or have questions, just ask. --Andreas 10:53, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

About Organizing the book
Thanks for the suggestions, points taken. It is growing but I am not sure when it can pass alpha stage of quality.

I am struggling between the wiki syntax of moimon and mediawike, and also the balance of family,work and my poor english.

Does this wikimedia support Graphviz ? I have lots of idea want to express them in graph. This book has another version which is in docbook format, in that format I used Graphviz to generate losts of jpg/png to be included in docbook format of this book.

--tjyang 12:41, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * Hi T J Yang. English should not be your main obstacle, since in the perfect Wikiworld, other people will come to brush up your English (if you wait long enough :-) ). About the pictures: YES, please put pictures into the book. If you are logged in you can upload pictures to Wikibooks so that you can use them here. You might also upload them to the Commons, and use them immediately in all wikis, also Wikibooks. Keep the work, it is getting a very nice Wikibook! --Andreas 19:47, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Andrea, thanks for the encouragement. What I really hope wikibooks can support is this extension. http://www.wickle.com/wikis/index.php/Graphviz_extension --tjyang 14:04, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:CPAM with TWW


text:
User talk:Tjyang

Organizing CPAM with TWW
Hi Tjyang! Your book is growing well, so I left you a message at Talk:CPAM with TWW. --Andreas 10:57, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Image:Hobbit-trending-graph-ping.jpg
Please remember about Image copyright tags. In case of screenshots, give the image the same license the program itself has. Screenshots of copyrighted (non-GPL, -BSD etc.) programs are fair use. --Derbeth talk 08:55, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

New pages
Hi - I see you have recently created two new pages Slides & The hobbit Users list. To follow naming policy these should be part of the main book System Monitoring with Hobbit I imagine. You can use the "move" tab to change the name - thanks -- Herby talk thyme 12:47, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Copyrights
Please provide information about source and licensing of: Image:Cpam-nis-islands-common-software.gif and Image:Cpam-nis-islands.gif or these files will be deleted. --Derbeth talk 10:04, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Tjyang


text:
CPAM with TWW/Cross-Platform Application Management With CPAM HPMS

= Cross-Platform Application Management With CPAM HPMS =

Overview

 * Problems we are facing

Computers created by mankind are a reflection of human races. The Java environment is a good example aim to do same "things" across different incompatible paltforms. X Windows and GNUstep are another two examples aim to provide unified and consistent programming environment for application developers.
 * Possible Solutions

A solution to deal with application management across different OS is needed. Given GNUstep's cross-platform declaration on application development activities, so should the application management activities cross-platform unified. by unified, we don't mean to through away your existing investment on your application, we like to work with your existing system but to come up with a least denominator standard we can all agree upon. like ...TBA.

In this project we like to use GNUstep application as an example to demonstrate the benefits of using CPAM. There are currently different package sources to create GNUstep package for different OS platforms. We will demonstrate using one package source to create native package for different OS. and also using same tool to maintain GNUstep package.

This book will explain using HPMS to package GNUstep for deploying GNUstep on different OS platform easily. Also we explore the possibility of integrating HPMS funcation into GNUstep to add HPMS into GNUstep.

Project Overview slides
TBA.

Brief introduction of a few PMS and its package format

 * RPM
 * Solaris pkgadd
 * HP-UX SD-UX
 * GNUstep pkg
 * MacOS X pkg
 * Debian dpkg
 * ipkg for Embeded Linux system.
 * Comparison of PMS
 * Comparison of HPMS

Architecture of a HPMS
HPMS                     TWW

PMS     RPM      PKGADD         MSI         SD-UX - --- ---  --       | Linux | | Solaris |  | Windows |  | HP-UX  | OS    |       | |         |  |         |  |        | --  ---  --

Why doing it

 * Automation of package management to improve efficiency.
 * A software compiling process is very complex and needs to be exact on what other software you need to compile with and how you configure the compilation flags to the compiler. This complex process can actually be programmed into a script and be repeatable by easy commands without waiting for the original author to reproduce the process.
 * Lots of time is spent by experienced gurus to assist new developer/packager with compiling the source.
 * Time can be better spent on software developement instead of on the compiling and packaging process.
 * The software and package creation processes can be reproduced easily by others with simple commands.
 * Improves QA testing by generating bug fixes quickly.

When
TBA.

Technology Provider: TWW Inc. http://www.thewrittenword.com
This project is using CPAM tools created by TWW Inc.The company created TWW tool sets to help cross-platform open-source package creation and deployment. Currently GNUstep is not available in the list of their supported packages. The good thing is that we have a chance to invite steppers to create the package sources together. All sources of their supported packages are available at ftp://support.thewrittenword.com. Those package sources need to be compiled with the vendor's compiler. The gcc compiler is used only on RedHat platform.

Team member

 * T.J. Yang
 * Put your name and contact information here if you are serious about this project.

Plan

 * Introduce the CPAM(Cross-Platform Application Management) tool implemented by TWW Inc. to the GNUstep CPAD community
 * Cross-Platform is easier said than done because each platform's features are barriers for others.
 * Release GNUstep package source implemented by TWW CPAM.
 * I will release a working package source for others to try and review.
 * The package sources can generate native package format for RHAS rpm,Solaris pkgadd and HP-UX depot formats.
 * Write a tutorial on learning TWW CPAM.
 * I am willing to help/assist a few persons to get familiar with TWW tools if they promise to write up what they learned in a tutorial article.

Current TWW HPMS supported Systems
please see http://www.thewrittenword.com/evaluate/ for currently supported OS platforms.


text:
CPAM with TWW/Porting TWW HPMS to other OS

Porting TWW HPMS to other OS
There are two tasks need to be done when porting TWW HPMS tools to other OS.
 * Porting the TWW HPMS tool itself
 * Porting the package sources.
 * The makefile to automate the TWW tools porting.

Linksys NSLU2
{}
 * A Makefile to build TWW tools for nslu2.
 * compile sbtuils tool to generate sb
 * use sb to compile and build pb and pkgutils
 * Porting sbtools
 * Porting pbtools
 * Porting pkgutils

Mac OS X
Doing our homework, following are some good documents about software packaging on Mac OS X. The package management system is getting better but still fall short of a basic functionality that a PMS shoule have. Ex, you can't list out current installed package using command line tool. you can't remove a package using a command or handle package dependency automatically.
 * PackageMaker Howto
 * Local PMS

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app/Contents/MacOS/PackageMaker is getting better in 10.3.8. we can now create a .pkg with command line. Be aware to supply absolute path after -p or -f options.

Following is an partial makefile to create TWW CPAM tools in Mac OSX's local PMS format.

 * 1) A simple layout for .pkg format
 * 2) Test.pkg
 * 3)    Contents
 * 4)        Archive.bom
 * 5)        Archive.pax.gz
 * 6)        Info.plist
 * 7)        PkgInfo
 * 8)        Resources
 * 9)            Description.plist
 * 10)            postflight      -1-
 * 11)            postinstall     -2-
 * 12)            postupgrade     -3-
 * 13)            preflight       -4-
 * 14)            preinstall      -5-
 * 15)            preupgrade      -6-

PKGMK=/Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app/Contents/MacOS/PackageMaker SB_PKG_DIR=/opt/TWWfsw/sbutils124 SB_PKGNAME=sbutils-1.2.4 PB_PKGNAME=pbutils-1.1.12 PKGUTILS_PKGNAME=pkgutils-1.5.19 SB_PKG_HOME=/opt/build/sbutils-1.2.4 PB_PKG_HOME=${SB_PKG_HOME} PKGUTILS_PKG_HOME=${SB_PKG_HOME} SB_PKG_STG=${SB_PKG_HOME}/sbutils-stage PB_PKG_STG=${SB_PKG_HOME}/pbutils-stage PKGUTILS_PKG_STG=${SB_PKG_HOME}/pkgutils-stage PB_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/TWWfsw/pbutils11 PKGUTILS_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/TWWfsw/pkgutils15 sb-pkg: sb-pkg-prep sb-pkg-pkgmk sb-pkg-clean: rm -rf ${SB_PKG_HOME}/${SB_PKGNAME} ${SB_PKG_STG} sb-pkg-prep: rm -rf $(SB_PKG_STG) mkdir -p $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/postflight touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/postinstall touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/postupgrade touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/preflight touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/preinstall touch $(SB_PKG_STG)/Contents/Resources/preupgrade sb-pkg-pkgmk: $(PKGMK) -build -p ${SB_PKG_HOME}/${SB_PKGNAME}.pkg -f $(SB_INSTALL_PREFIX) -i ${SB_PKG_HOME}/src/macosx/Info.p\list.sb -d ${SB_PKG_HOME}/src/macosx/Description.plist.sb

sb-pkg-pkgmk-clean: rm -rf ${SB_PKG_HOME}/${SB_PKGNAME} sb-pkg-install: /usr/sbin/installer -pkg sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg -target / sbutils-1.2.4 compiled ok on Mac OS X 10.3.8. We also can use packagemaker to generate sbutils-1.2.4 into Mac OS X's native package format. Following quick notes need to be documented later.
 * Porting sbtools

conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ sudo make sb-pkg rm -rf /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage mkdir -p /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postflight touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postinstall touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postupgrade touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preflight touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preinstall touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preupgrade cp -rp /opt/TWWfsw/sbutils124/* /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage ^Cmake: *** [sb-pkg-prep] Interrupt

conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ sudo make sb-pkg rm -rf /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage mkdir -p /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postflight touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postinstall touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/postupgrade touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preflight touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preinstall touch /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Resources/preupgrade /usr/bin/mkbom -s /opt/TWWfsw/sbutils124 /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Archive.bom (pax -w -x cpio /opt/TWWfsw/sbutils124 |gzip - > /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents/Archive.pax.gz) /Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app/Contents/MacOS/PackageMaker -build -p /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg  -f /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-stage/Contents -i //Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/Info.plist -d //Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/Description.plist 2005-02-27 23:29:24.664 PackageMaker[19034] ** building a package at /Users/tjyang/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4/sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg ** 2005-02-27 23:29:32.961 PackageMaker[19034] done (0) conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ ls -lrt total 216 -rwx--  1 tjyang  tjyang  42318 23 Feb 15:04 systype -rw-r--r--  1 tjyang  tjyang   1069 27 Feb 15:49 cipo.error.txt drwx-- 43 tjyang  tjyang   1462 27 Feb 15:59 src -rwxr-xr-x  1 tjyang  tjyang   7796 27 Feb 22:23 genpkg.sh -rw-r--r--   1 tjyang  tjyang    459 27 Feb 23:13 Description.plist -rw-r--r--  1 tjyang  tjyang   1050 27 Feb 23:17 Info.plist -rwx--  1 tjyang  tjyang  44915 27 Feb 23:28 Makefile drwxr-xr-x  3 root    tjyang    102 27 Feb 23:28 sbutils-stage drwxr-xr-x  3 root    tjyang    102 27 Feb 23:29 sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ ls sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg/ Contents conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ ls sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg/Contents/ Archive.bom    Archive.pax.gz  Info.plist      PkgInfo         Resources conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ ls -l sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg/Contents/ total 32312 -r--r--r-- 1 root  tjyang     35525 27 Feb 23:29 Archive.bom -r--r--r-- 1 root  tjyang  16496572 27 Feb 23:29 Archive.pax.gz -r--r--r--  1 root  tjyang      1050 27 Feb 23:29 Info.plist -r--r--r-- 1 root  tjyang         8 27 Feb 23:29 PkgInfo drwxr-xr-x 7 root  tjyang       238 27 Feb 23:29 Resources conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ ls -l sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg/Contents/Resources/ total 40 -r--r--r-- 1 root  tjyang  459 27 Feb 23:29 Description.plist lrwxr-xr-x 1 root  tjyang   14 27 Feb 23:29 sbutils-1.2.4-1.bom -> ../Archive.bom -r--r--r-- 1 root  tjyang  275 27 Feb 23:29 sbutils-1.2.4-1.info lrwxr-xr-x 1 root  tjyang   17 27 Feb 23:29 sbutils-1.2.4-1.pax.gz -> ../Archive.pax.gz -r--r--r--  1 root  tjyang   46 27 Feb 23:29 sbutils-1.2.4-1.sizes conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$ vi sbutils-1.2.4-1.pkg/Contents/Resources/sbutils-1.2.4-1.info conchi:~/tww-tools/sbutils-1.2.4 tjyang$

Microsoft Windows
The first problem of porting TWW HPMS tool to Win32 platformat is which package creation software and Unix foundation software to base upon.

"aux" need to be renamed to "auxx". perl -pi -e 's!\/aux\/!/aux!' Makfile http://cygwin.com/setup.html is the place to understand cygwin package format.
 * Unix foundation software
 * cygwin notes for sbutils package source.
 * mingw
 * SFU
 * Package Creation tools
 * MakeMSI (see http://users.cyberone.com.au/dbareis/makemsi.htm) automatically builds (or updates) MSI files (or any other type of Windows Installer databases). It uses an XML like scripting language which can be invoked via explorer or the command line. It also builds MSI documentation which includes file (MD5 checks installed files against expected etc.) and product verification buttons. It includes a very powerful preprocessor.

Dialogs can be created and easily formatted without a dialog editor. There are a number of "frameworks" for different uses and user skills. Custom action code can be integrated and has some ADSI/COMPLUS/scheduling and other support.

The following is a small sample script (one file, one shortcut, one smallish VBSCRIPT based Custom Action).
 * --- Load MAKEMSI (via wrapper which configures MAKEMSI to work how I like it) ---
 * 1) include "DENNIS.MMH"

<$DirectoryTree Key="INSTALLDIR" Dir="[ProgramFilesFolder]\TryMe" CHANGE="\" PrimaryFolder="Y">
 * --- Create INSTALLDIR (we wish to install file(s) here) ---

<$Component "TryMe" Create="Y" Directory_="INSTALLDIR">  ;;In this case GUID autogenerated (at least 1st time) ;--- Add the files to the "TryMe" component - <$File SOURCE="TryMeWithAdvShortCut.MM" KeyPath="Y">
 * --- Add "TRY.MM" and shortcut to same component (file must be keypath) ---

;--- Add the shortcut (advertise the "complete" feature) #(--- Advertised shortcut in "Start->programs" ---       <$Shortcut                   Dir="ProgramMenuFolder"               Feature="\"                        ;;root feature is my "complete" one                 Title="Open TryMeWithAdvShortCut.MM (via default association)"           Description=^Simply opens "TryMeWithAdvShortCut.MM" in associated handler (probably notepad)!^                  Icon="@.\TryMe.ico"               WorkDir="INSTALLDIR"        >    #) <$/Component>

;--- Some data we'd like to pass to the CA --- "InstallationDirectory" "[INSTALLDIR]" "SystemFolder" "[SystemFolder]" <$VbsCa Binary="Popup.vbs" DATA=^PopupCaData^> <$VbsCaEntry "HiThere"> ;--- If the VBSCRIPT "MsgBox" or similar function was used this would prevent a silent install --- #(           CaMsgBox "I",                     "Hi this is a message from '<?InputFile>'! This was displayed via a VBSCRIPT MSI custom action." &                     vbCRLF & vbCRLF &                     "Note that I have enlarged this message box so that when an error occurs you will see the whole text! " &                     "This and most tweeking MAKEMSI does to the user interface is optional (most performed by ""UISAMPLE.MMH"")." &                     vbCRLF & vbCRLF &                     "The installation directory is """ & VbsCaCadGet("InstallationDirectory") & """. " &                     "The system directory is """       & VbsCaCadGet("SystemFolder")          & """."       #) <$/VbsCaEntry> <$/VbsCa> <$VbsCaSetup Binary="Popup.vbs" Entry="HiThere" Seq="StartServices-" CONDITION=^<$CONDITION_INSTALL_ONLY>^ DATA=^PopupCaData^>
 * --- Display a message during a non-silent install (logs if silent) -
 * 1) data "PopupCaData"
 * 1) data

candle and light are a pair of commandline package creation tool similar to rpmbuild in redhat, packagemaker in Max OS X or pkgmk in solaris. F:\src\wix\tutorial\Sample1>cat batch11.bat del Sample11.msi candle -nologo Sample11.wxs light -nologo Sample11.wixobj msiexec /i Sample11.msi /l* Sample11.log rem msiexec /x Sample11.msi /qb F:\src\wix\tutorial\Sample1> F:\src\wix\tutorial\Sample1>cat Sample11.wxs
 * NSIS http://nsis.sourceforge.net/
 * Inno
 * Wix at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wix, it has XML,scripting and command line support to generate a MSI package.
 * 1) The challenge of using Wix tool set to generate a Unix package is the GUID. Fortunately mallow.exe come to the rescue. it can scan a src directory and generate GUID for each component(directory or file).
 * 2) We need to figure out how to make pb to generate wxs xml file and communicate with candle and light to gernate msi pacakge with the help of mallow.
 * 1) Following is an small batch file to illustrate creating a msi package, installing and remove this package.
 * 1) The wix package source is display in following text, following are todos.
 * 2) Converting pbuitils' .pb xml file to wix's wxs XML.
 * 3) Figuring out msiexec to delete a package using a package ID without the presence of actual .msi package.

     </Component>

<Component Id='Manual' Guid='CE36F399-574D-4A9A-A266-5B5EC2C022A4'> <File Id='Manual' Name='Manual.pdf' DiskId='1' src='Manual.pdf' />

<Shortcut Id="startmenuManual" Directory="ProgramMenuDir" Name="Manual" LongName="Instruction Manual" Target="Documentation" /> </Component>

</Directory> </Directory> </Directory>

<Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder" Name="PMenu" LongName="Programs"> <Directory Id="ProgramMenuDir" Name='Foobar10' LongName="Foobar 1.0" /> </Directory>

<Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop" /> </Directory>

<Feature Id='Complete' Level='1'> <ComponentRef Id='MainExecutable' /> <ComponentRef Id='Manual' /> </Feature>

</Product> </Wix>

F:\src\wix\tutorial\Sample1> http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/ http://www.ryanlowe.ca/blog/archives/001167_learning_wix_part_one.php http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/
 * References of WiX and MS installer.
 * Porting sbtools
 * Porting pbtools
 * Porting pkgutils

FreeBSD

 * Porting sbtools
 * Porting pbtools
 * Porting pkgutils

Debian

 * Porting sbtools
 * Porting pbtools
 * Porting pkgutils

Package Management Process
Software engineering process include design and implement software via software developers to generate source codes. The source codes will then need to be built, packaged and be managed. We can divide this process into three general steps.

 * Software build process(SB) and SB can be divided into following processes on a build machine
 * source unpack
 * source patch
 * source configure
 * source build to generate binary and documentation
 * binary test
 * binary install
 * binary uninstall
 * Package build (PB) process is much straight forward
 * prepare the configuration script
 * prepare init script to start/stop application service
 * call up local PMS to pack the binary,documentation and scripts into local PMS format.
 * Package Management (PKGUTIL) Process
 * upload and administrate packages on package depot server.
 * install
 * remove
 * upgrade/patch
 * auto installation upon package dependence.

TWW HPMS introduction
TWW Inc. has three tools to match the package management processes.

[root] ls -l /opt/TWWfsw/sbutils12/bin/ total 164 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       38551 Dec  1 15:17 gen-sb-db -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       44418 Dec  1 15:17 sb [root] [root] ls -l /opt/TWWfsw/pbutils11/bin/ total 186 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       29975 Apr 30  2004 gen-pb-db -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       29169 Apr 30  2004 gen-pkg-db -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       34023 Apr 30  2004 pb [root]
 * Softeware build
 * sbutils
 * Package build
 * pbutils

[root] ls -l /opt/TWWfsw/pkgutils15/bin/ total 542 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       32434 Jan 25  2004 chk-pkg-updates -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       18751 Jan 25  2004 pkg-config -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       48281 Jan 25  2004 pkg-info -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       70570 Jan 25  2004 pkg-inst -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     other      68887 May 18  2003 pkg-inst~ -rwxr-xr-x  1 root     root       35692 Jan 25  2004 pkg-rm [root]
 * Package Management
 * pkgutils
 * How to get TWW tools ?

TWW Inc.
All the TWW tools and sources of their supported packages are GPL compliant. They are freely available at their ftp site ftp://support.thewrittenword.com. But their support labor and binary packages are not free of charge. We are glad TWW Inc. find a way to do open-source works and still can make a living out of it. Please support TWW Inc. if your workplace need such kind of service ( http://shopping.netsuite.com/tww ).