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<title>TUX&amp;GNU@school - 3rd edition</title>
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<h1>TUX&amp;GNU@school - 3rd edition</h1>
<p><i>Every month the column <a
href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tgs.en.html">TUX&amp;GNU@school
[2]</a> reports about free education software, a homepage on
the topic and an easy to implement idea. This month I talk
about <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kgeo">KGeo</a>, a free
geometry programm for KDE, about <a
href="http://www.edux.ch">edux.ch</a>, the info portal for
Swiss schools and GNU/Linux and about the idea "Textfilter -
filters once for a good thing".</i></p>
<p>Welcome to the third and last edition of
TUX&amp;GNU@school, the "last" only in the sense of the first
triple serie ending with this edition. Now it's definitive: I
will release the column furthermore monthly. With the next
edition there are some news but more about this in the next
month. But now to the first item.</p>
<h3>KGeo - Geometry with the mouse</h3>
<p>KGeo <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kgeo">[3]</a> <a
href="http://kgeo.sourceforge.net">[4]</a> is a free geometry
education program which which recently became part of the <a
href="http://edu.kde.org">KDE-Edutainment project [5]</a>.
It's developed by Marc Bratsch and available in German and
English at the moment. I tested the Version 1.0.2 under
Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 and KDE 2.2.2.</p>
<p>After the first start you right catch sight of the main
window of KGeo in which the single function panels are
disposed at the sides. The construction board with an
underlying coordinate system is in the middle. Generally the
interfaces isn't overloaded with functions and with it
clearly. Besides the menu the program has another five
function panels until now that each user can arrange him- or
herself. Thereby three panels are thought for the
construction of geometric objects, another one contains
functions for measuring and calculating of lengths, areas,
etc. and the last panel invokes general ways you need for
erasing or moving of objects.</p>
<p>When the user works with KGeo, he is always in one of
three modes. These are the construction mode, the drag mode
and trace mode. It is possible, in the construction mode, to
draw geometric objects like points, routes or triangles
farther there are methods for vectors, centres, parallels or
angles too. With combination of these objects and methods you
then even can construct reflections, translations or
rotations. If you want to size the drawn figures the
developer made tools to measure the circle areas, distances,
angles, slopes or circumfences. All construction buttons have
an information window that appears if the mouse pointer is
over the button. These windows and the short sentence in the
status panel explain the function as good that you don't have
to work in and you can begin your work in a moment.</p>
<p><img src="./img/kgeo.en.png"
alt="Screenshot 1: KGeo and the theorem of Thales"
width="800" height="565" border="0" /><br />
</p>
<h5>Screenshot 1: KGeo and the theorem of Thales</h5>
<br />
<br />
<p>In the drag mode you can move the single objects in the
coordinate system, dependences like reflection or a rotations
with certain angle stay maintained respectively are ongoing
tracked. By enabling the trace mode too which is possible for
each point separately, you can even track the exact move or
points. Then if you're happy with your drawing and you want
not only save it but also showing the result to your teacher
the next day, the best way to do this is to print it. Of
course this can KGeo too.</p>
<p>But for all that there is of course a German and English
manual for the ongoing geometry masteress. That is quite
short and bare but even so good and easy to understand. I
personally like especially the chapter "Using KGeo" which
explains constructions for the encouragement at schools but
"only" the theorem of the Thales circle up to now. But I'm
sure some of the TUX&amp;GNU@school readers could change this
?!? If in any case we talk about KGeo at school I want to
talk about the possibility switching KGeo into the Kioskmode.
In this mode the coordinate system with the drawing is
displayed on the whole screen but you can't change anything
then. But at the end of the report I have to give you some
bad news. It seems as if KGeo isn't developed anymore at
least at the moment. Nevertheless a large "thank you" to Marc
for the program, I like it and surely not only me.</p>
<p>But now continues to the home of the "ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe
Linux an Schulen" (Swiss work group for linux at school).</p>
<h3>edux.ch - the info portal for Swiss schools and
GNU/Linux</h3>
<p>At least, a <a href="http://www.edux.ch">project [6]</a>
which I am actively working in, and, besides that, the
project out of which the TUX&amp;GNU@school originated. The
"ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe Linux an Schulen" (Swiss work group for
linux at school), the group behind edux.ch, originated out of
the <a href="http://www.lugs.ch">LUGS - Linux User Group
Switzerland [7]</a> in november 2001. The three people
Christoph Kuhn, Daniel Dahinden and Mario Fux founded the
task force all people employing with Free Software and
GNU/Linux at schools already beforehand. We want to create an
information plattform for all the Swiss (and other) schools
interesting on the topic.</p>
<p>When you enter the URL <a
href="http://www.edux.ch">http://www.edux.ch</a> in the
favorite browser, first you'll see a welcome page. Following
the shown link you'll come to the front page of the Swiss
information portal. This is divided in three columns as you
can see in screenshot 2. Leftmost there is the navigation
panel which is on all the other sides too, beneath it an
input window for the username and the password is situated
where interested and already registered people can log in. At
the right side there are some links to chummy groups and
projects like the already known <a
href="http://www.pingos.schulnetz.org">PingoS [8]</a> or <a
href="http://www.wilhelmtux.ch">WilhelmTUX [9]</a>. As you
can see at the navigation panel the website ist subdivided in
seven sections up to now. Thereby the first is the front page
itself whereas all the rest have subsections unless <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=26">"Kontakt" (contact)
[10]</a>.</p>
<p><img src="./img/edux.en.png"
alt="Screenshot 2: Front page of edux.ch" width="800"
height="600" border="0" /><br />
Screenshot 2: Front page of edux.ch</p>
<p>In the first purview <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=29">"Alles <20>ber ALIS"
(everything about ALIS) [11]</a> the interested reader can
get to know more about the task force e.g. how the group is
compound and how it is originated. By now the third <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=81">link [12]</a>
should show you something well known viz the current and all
past editions of TUX&amp;GNU@school. Probably in the near
future there you can find more about the "easy to implement
ideas" mainly about the already implemented ones. In the
section <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=47">"Education
Software" [13]</a> you can find information about <a
href="http://www.lernnetz-sh.de/kmlinux">kmLinux [14]</a> and
you can order it in Switzerland. More about kmLinux perhaps
more in one of the next editions. You can find there a <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=68">"Linksammlung"
(link collection) [15]</a> about free education software and
conditional sites.</p>
<p>Then the fifth reference guides to a central section of
edux.ch, the <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/forum/index.php?f=0">Forum [16]</a>.
So far three active forums and a test-forum are arranged. You
can discuss and criticize about themes in the context of Free
Software at schools in the forums "Linux im Bildungsbereich"
(Linux at school), "Fragen zu Linux-Software" (questions
about linux software) and "Anregungen und Kritik an ALIS"
(suggestions and criticism about ALIS). The first two forums
can be subscribed optionally as mailing lists too.</p>
<p>You find <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=64">brochures [17]</a>
in the second last section. There will be more in the future
but until now you'll find a linux guide called "SuSE Linux
verwenden - Ein Leitfaden f<>r Windows- und
Macintosh-BenutzerInnen" (Using SuSE Linux - a guide f<>r
users of Windows and MacOS), a selection of German
OpenOffice.org and StarOffice courses for downloading as pdf
or text files and a German and French documentation about the
free 2D-CAD software <a href="http://www.qcad.org">QCad
[18]</a>. How and where you can find us is written on the
last page under <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=26">"Kontakt" (contact)
[10]</a>.</p>
<p>What we're still missing is more (wo)manpower. We have
many ideas and a lot to do and need additional helpers for
that. If somebody is interested he or she can send us an
email to <a href="mailto:alis@lugs.ch">[19]</a>. As a little
stimulus I still want to mention two projects we're working
on: On the one hand this is the email survey on education
software publishers concerning available education software
for GNU/Linux and on the other hand we test education
software for Windows and Macintosh under <a
href="http://www.winehq.com">WINE [20]</a> and <a
href="http://www.transgaming.com">WineX [21]</a> and then we
write little HOWTOs.</p>
<p>Oh yes before I'll forget it. For all the people who
doesn't know it, Switzerland has got four national languages
and so you always have to accost all speech groups. We want
this too and as a first step we'll publish our whole website
besides in German in French too. Interesting translators for
Italian and R<>toromanic are supposed to send an email to <a
href="mailto:alis@lugs.ch">[19]</a>.</p>
<h3>"Textfilter - filters once for a good thing"</h3>
<p>Before I'll come to the idea of this month I can talk this
time too about an implementation of idea of the last month.
For remembrance: The idea of the last time was to format
text, to use small and large letters and to erase punctuation
marks. Already one week after publishing <a
href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tagatschool2.en.html">TUX&amp;GNU@school
2 [22]</a> Roland Spielhofer told me that he implemented the
idea in PHP and that it is now available unter <a
href="http://zbp.boku.ac.at/schule/">[23]</a>. After a query
about the source code he told me among others that the
conversion took "only" half an hour. This is a good example
for what I want to accomplish with this section. A problem
that tooks a lot of time for a teacher or a pupil can be
implemented by a talented programmer in only a few minutes
and so saving time for a lot of people. Nevertheless or right
therefore the work of the programmer should be appreciated.
Also a "thank you" to Roland in Vienna, Austria for this
time.</p>
<p><img src="./img/text4mator.en.png"
alt="Screenshot 3: Text4mator from Vienna" width="800"
height="600" border="0" /><br />
</p>
<h5>Screenshot 3: Text4mator form Vienna</h5>
<br />
<br />
<p>But now to the idea of this month. Who doesn't know the
separation excercises we all made at school. Well already
various worksheets were made for this theme and will made
again. Thereby and by related jobs the elaborating teachers
have alwasy to make lists with complying words. For the
hacker next door it would be easy to write a program or
script which searches words out of a text, given or searched
in the internet, and packetizes in a list. Perhaps even
making a worksheet yet ?!? I concede this month's idea isn't
far thought respectively worked out. But let you flow your
neurons and surprise the readers of the next edition with
further going and maybe crazy ideas.</p>
<p>At the end I still want to ask for reports for a new
section in this column. At the next or the next but one time
I want initiate a new section beneath the existing three
reporting about already realized projects at schools and
migration to free software and/or GNU/Linux. If you don't
want to write your own report you can answer to the questions
next released under <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=81">[12]</a> and send
the text to <a href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">me</a>.</p>
<p>That's it for this month. Up to the next time when there
are a lot of news ;-).</p>
<h3>Links:</h3>
<p>[1] <a href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">Criticism, questions,
comments, ideas and more please to: foxman@lugo.ch</a><br />
[2] <a
href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tgs.en.html">Homepage
of TUX&amp;GNU@school:
www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tgs.en.html</a><br />
[3] <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kgeo">KDE-Edutainment
homepage of KGeo: edu.kde.org/kgeo</a><br />
[4] <a href="http://kgeo.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge.net
homepage of KGeo: kgeo.sourceforge.net</a><br />
[5] <a href="http://edu.kde.org">Homepage of the
KDE-Edutainment project: edu.kde.org</a><br />
[6] <a href="http://www.edux.ch">Homepage of the "ALIS -
Arbeitsgruppe Linux an Schulen" (Swiss work group for linux
at school): www.edux.ch</a><br />
[7] <a href="http://www.lugs.ch">Homepage of the LUGS -
Linux User Group Switzerland: www.lugs.ch</a><br />
[8] <a href="http://www.pingos.schulnetz.org">Homepage of
the PingoS: pingos.schulnetz.org</a><br />
[9] <a href="http://www.wilhelmtux.ch">Homepage of
WilhelmTUX: www.wilhelmtux.ch</a><br />
[10] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=26">EDUX.ch
-&gt; "Kontakt" (contact)</a><br />
[11] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=29">EDUX.ch
-&gt; "Alles <20>ber ALIS" (everything about ALIS)</a><br />
[12] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=81">EDUX.ch
-&gt; TUX&amp;GNU@school</a><br />
[13] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=47">EDUX.ch
-&gt; Education Software</a><br />
[14] <a href="http://www.lernnetz-sh.de/kmlinux">Homepage of
kmLinux: www.lernnetz-sh.de/kmlinux/</a><br />
[15] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=68">EDUX.ch
-&gt; "Linkssammlung" (links collection)</a><br />
[16] <a
href="http://www.edux.ch/forum/index.php?f=0">EDUX.ch -&gt;
"Diskussions-Forum" (discussion forum)</a><br />
[17] <a href="http://www.edux.ch/nav.php?site=64">EDUX.ch
-&gt; "Unterlagen" (brochures)</a><br />
[18] <a href="http://www.qcad.org">Homepage of QCad:
www.qcad.org</a><br />
[19] <a href="mailto:alis@lugs.ch">Questions, criticism and
more for the ALIS and about edux.ch to:
alis@lugs.ch</a><br />
[20] <a href="http://www.winehq.com">Homepage of WINE - Wine
Is Not an Emulator aka WINdows Emulator:
www.winehq.com</a><br />
[21] <a href="http://www.transgaming.com">Homepage of
TransGaming and WineX: www.transgaming.com</a><br />
[22] <a
href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tagatschool2.html">TUX&amp;GNU@school
- 2nd edition:
www.fsfeurope.org/education/tgs/tagatschool2.html</a><br />
[23] <a href="http://zbp.boku.ac.at/schule/">Text4mator of
Roland Spielhofer from Vienna:
zbp.boku.ac.at/schule</a><br />
</p>
<h4>About the author:</h4>
<p>Mario Fux finished 1999 the PrimarlehrerInnenseminar in
Brig after he made up mathematical and natural scientifical
matura. In a body with two colleagues he founded the <a
href="http://www.edux.ch">"ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe Linux an
Schulen"</a> (Swiss work group for linux at school).
Meanwhile he studies at the <a
href="http://www.ethz.ch">Swiss Federal Institut of
Technology Zurich</a> <a
href="http://www.ee.ethz.ch">informations technology and
electrical engineering</a>. And if he once doesn't spend his
time in front of the PC, he sits at his nature pond in the <a
href="http://www.randa.ch">mountains</a>.</p>
<p align="center"><i>This document is distributed under the
terms of the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#TOCFDL">GNU
Free Documentation License</a>.</i></p>
<p align="center"><i>Thanks to Christian Selig and Kristian
Rink for their help with the translation !</i></p>
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