Re: [seul-edu] Our math discussion - Docs

[lp <prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

Georges Khaznadar wrote:
> 
> Roger Dingledine writes:
>  > > install a WIMS server, [...]
>  >
>  > what's the main bottleneck for a wims server?
> 
> it depends on the exercices students and other visitors want to
> perform. For 3d ray-traced surfaces, the bottleneck is clearly
> processor speed, and secondarily memory size. If visitors use
> quiz-type exercises, or the interface for exercises creation, it
> relies heavily on cgi, so the bottleneck may be disk access speed.
> When animated GIFs are created, another bottleneck may be bandwidth.
> 
>  > i can stick it on a dual p5/166mmx with 224 megs of ram and oodles of
>  > bandwidth. or with some more work i can stick it on a dual piii/550
>  > xeon with a gig of ram and oodles of bandwidth. i'd much prefer the
>  > former.
> 
> Both are very usable. Watch the stats to see if the server is not
> overloaded.

This jives with my experience, too. The 3d ray-tracing feature is very
popular, and if you get several simultaneous hits (like from a class)
the server will slow down.

>  > and if somebody wants to volunteer however long it would take to set
>  > up to, well, set it up for us, that would be keen.
>
> I've installed two WIMS servers from my seat on distant machines with
> no root access. I just need a user account, and two e-mail exchanges
> with the root of the distant machine, one before the installation, the
> second at the end. The administrator of the distant machine has
> roughly half an hour to work.
> 
> Georges.

It's the support packages: pari/gp, MuPAD, GAP, maxima, povray, that
took
most of the time in my first installation. Georges could be a real help 
there - I'd take advantage of the offer. Once you get it installed, it's
a breeze to upgrade and maintain.

lp