Introduction to the Computing Disciplines Facility (CDF)

Compiled by Ray Ortigas

Sources

• CSC324 Tutorial Notes by Todd Kelley, September 1991
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on CDF web site

To learn about the CDF environment itself, you should obtain a copy of A Student’s Guide to CDF, which is a primer for working on the new CDF workstations. This handbook should be available in the University of Toronto Bookstore. It gives introductory information about using the new workstations, using mail and news, working by phone, and other important issues.

A very important source of information, which is often overlooked or forgotten, is the man command. Knowing how to use the power of the man command can get you answers to a surprising percentage of the questions you will have regarding your programming environment.

To found out how man works, type man man. Another useful command is man -k, which performs a search of all the man pages by a given keyword argument.

For more information on the CDF facility, check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at www.cdf.toronto.edu/cdf/faq.html.