CSC 240 Personal Computing for Programmers


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) List

Table of Contents

  1. Are we going to do any more with the basic operating system commands ?
  2. How can I get this FTP to work using AOL ?
  3. Will you answer my e-mail question(s) if I sent it to you on the day of class, Tuesday ?
  4. I just bought a computer that came with Microsoft Office, but I don't see Microsoft Access with it.  What gives ?
  5. What is the grader's e-mail address ?
  6. In a query, I made a prompt in the the criteria section of a Yes/No field.  No matter what value I enter for the pop up dialog box, I get an error when I run the query.  What is going on ?

1.  Are we going to do any more with the basic operating system commands ?

No, not really.  I told you the first class would be slow :) 

The session on monday was designed to introduce you to the lowest levels of working in the operating system and how a GUI interface makes things like that easier to do. 

You are expected (in this class and in your professional life) to work as effectively at the command line as you do using the File Explorer.  Therefore, you should practice the basic commands that we went through in class.  You will see this material again.  I will post a page with the basic commands and their explanations later.

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2.  How can I get this FTP to work using AOL ?

Beats me.  I don't use AOL.  Never have.  Might want to ask someone in class.

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3.  Will you answer my e-mail question(s) if I sent it to you on the day of class, Tuesday ?

Chances are...no.  Remember that I work full-time like a lot of you.  If you get any e-mail from me dated Mon thru Fri before 6 pm, consider yourself lucky.  It just means that I just happened to find a sliver of time to check in and answer a few small ones.  Don't ever count on the fact that I will answer an e-mail message before 6 pm.  

Also, don't forget that e-mail is NOT instantaneous although the illusion is certainly there.  A message could easily be bouncing around various servers around the world for days before it gets to its destination.

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4.  I just bought a computer that came with Microsoft Office, but I don't see Microsoft Access97 with it.  What gives ?

Like a lot of newer computers, you get a load of software bundled with it.  But you probably have a version of Microsoft Office97 that does not come with Microsoft Access97.  One version of this is called Microsoft Office97 Small Business Edition (SBE).  Not all small businesses need it.  Most businesses that you will be working for will typically use the version called Microsoft Office97 Professional.   This version contains Microsoft Access97.  If you want to do your homework at home, there are a few choices you have...

  1. Purchase an upgrade to Microsoft Office97 Professional.
  2. Purchase Microsoft Access97 outright.  Not recommended.  If you are going to to this, you might as well buy Microsoft Office97 Pro since you can get much more functionality in it. 

But you can always use the computers in the DePaul labs since they all have MS Access97 on them.

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5.  What is the grader's e-mail address ?

srangara@shrike.depaul.edu

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6.  In a query, I made a prompt in the the criteria section of a Yes/No field.  No matter what value I enter for the pop up dialog box, Yes or No, I get an error when I run the query.  What is going on ?

This is a strange situation because I was able to try this at work and entering Yes or No worked fine.  But I tried it at home and entering Yes or No gave me an error.   I know both PCs are running Access97.  I don't have an explanation but I do have a simple solution.

You'll learn this when you get into other programming languages but a "boolean" datatype (i.e. Y/N, T/F, On/Off, etc) actually has a numeric value that corresponds with each of the acceptable values.  In the case of MS-Access, YES = -1 and NO = 0.  Make a query to prompt you for values like you normally would, but when prompted, enter the numeric values instead of the Yes/No, True/False, etc values.

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