Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
General Information:
1. I do not have MSFT Word or Excel or Powerpoint to do my homework. How should I proceed?
If you can not afford to purchase a commercial version of the programs, you can always download for free the OpenOffice, an open source set of programs for word processing, presentations, graphics, spreadsheets e.t.c. The link to the website is: www.openoffice.org
2. What is a good plotting program?
Depending on the operating system, you can purchase or find free versions of good ploting programs. My favorite for Mac OSX is Plot. You can also create nice plots in Matlab and in Excel or compatible spreadsheet program. I encourage you to purchase the student version of Matlab. It is worth every penny!
3. How do I do a literature search? and how do I find articles in IEEE journals?
Check this example writeup that focuses on unearthing journal articles about the early microprocessors.
4. I have a Mac or a Linux machine. How can I run the windows programs?
There are two ways of doing what you want. You can use a virtual machine environment and virtualization software such as Vmware or Parallels for the MacOSX to install windows and run the programs. Alternatively you can use Wine or the commercial version Codeweavers to run windows applications under Mac OSX and Linux.
5. How do install Microwind programs on my Mac or Linux using Crossover or Wine?
Since there is no installer for these programs, just unzip the MicroWind2.zip file and put the unzipped file somewhere on your disk. For MacOS you can put the folder in the Applications folder.
Crossover: In Crossover, create a new Windows 7 Bottle call it CADTools-w7. Then from the main window of the new bottle select "Run Command" and browse to the executable you want to run (in the Applications folder). Create a menu shortcut if you like. Refresh the menus to see all the programs in the CADTools-w7 bottle directory.
Wine: After installation of Wine. To run a Microwind program, go to the directory that you have copied the program and right click on Dsch2.exe in the subdirectory dsch27f or Microwind2.exe in the subdirectory mw26k and select Open With "Wine Staging" (or the installation name of the Wine version that you have installed). The first time Wine tries to run these programs it installs additional MSFT components and once is done your program is running in the Wine environment.