% @(#) intro.tex 1.6@(#) 92/08/03 %
\chapter{Overview}
\WHATID{1.6 intro.tex 92/08/03%
}

This chapter presents an overview of facilities offered in the HelpEx system,
and how to use them.

%==============================================================================

\section{Facilities Provided}

The basic facilities provided by \MI{HelpEx} are as follows:
\begin{itemize}

	\item
	Electronic mail\MAI{electronic mail} (\MI{e-mail} or just \MI{mail})
	access.  You can send and receive mail from any \MI{Internet}-connected
	site without charge.

	`Internet-connected' does not necessarily mean {\em directly} connected to
	the Internet, but merely any site which exchanges mail over the Internet,
	or which can do so.  This gives access to millions of users all over the
	world in commercial, governmental and academic organisations.

	We only ask that you observe the \MI{good conduct} outlined in
	Subsection~\ref{SS-GC} of this document (even though that is aimed at
	\MI{USENET} use the same applies to \MI{e-mail}), and that you do not send
	or arrange to receive vast quantities (megabytes) of mail, particularly
	during peak telephone hours, without asking the HelpEx administrators
	first.  If you stick to this, all mail will be free.  Telephone time can be
	expensive, and we want to try to keep costs down for everyone.  Please read
	the accompanying charge schedule carefully.

	Reasonable quantities of small messages are never a problem.  Go ahead.

	Two mailers (programs with which you send mail or look at mail that has
	arrived for you) are provided on the system as standard, \MITOK{mail} (more
	fully, \MITOK{/usr/ucb/mail}) and \MITOK{ream}.   The \MITOK{mail} mailer
	is the default that comes with the \MI{SunOS} \MI{UNIX} system.  The
	\MITOK{ream} mailer is a rather more friendly program with the essentially
	the same facilities.

	For guidance on how to use the mailers, and, for example, how to construct
	an \MI{electronic mail address}, see Section~\ref{S-HTU-Mail}.

	There are UNIX manual pages on line for \MITOK{mail} and \MITOK{ream}.

	\item
	\MI{USENET} news\MAI{USENET news} access.  You may read any amount of
	USENET news.  You may create and send reasonable volumes of USENET
	`articles' free too.  See the charge schedule to see what the limits are;
	essentially we feel that most users should never come anywhere near the
	limits of what we consider `reasonable'.

	USENET is an incredibly valuable information resource.  USENET can be
	immensely entertaining.  It is a working electronic democracy.

	Even if you never use USENET in its own right, please learn how to read the
	local `\MITOK{exnet}' groups as we will use those to keep you informed of
	system changes and so on.  Also they can be used by you to ask questions
	about problems with, or features of, the system of us and other users.

	For guidance on how to access USENET see Section~\ref{S-HTU-USENET}.
	Please read the background material on USENET in this document before using
	USENET\@.  If you ignore this advice and make a big blunder it is possible
	that people all over the world will see and remember it!

	At the moment we only support one \MI{news reader}, \MITOK{rn}.  Manual
	pages\MAI{on-line manual pages} are on line for it.

	\item
	\MI{UNIX} access.  We give you an unrestricted UNIX \MI{shell}.  We run
	\MI{SunOS}.

	We run a small network of \MI{Sun workstations}, at the moment Sun-3/50s.
	Given time and some income we may upgrade some of these to better Sun-3s or
	Sun-4s.

	The system is quite open.  Don't read other people's files or otherwise
	\MI{hack} the system (see the charge schedule for the penalties for doing
	so).  Please don't hog the modems (keep your login time to an hour a day,
	though in as many separate sessions as you wish).  Please don't run lots of
	jobs under \MITOK{cron} or otherwise while you are not on the system.  The
	machines you log into are powerful enough to support your interactive
	sessions but not with~4,546 \MI{background jobs} running.  We may start
	charging for \MI{CPU times} for jobs that run while you are not logged in
	if this should get to be a problem.

	Be careful, be considerate, and respect others' privacy.  Don't break the
	system.  Within those limits do what you like.  We want the system to be
	open, fun, and useful.  Tell us if we can improve it in any way.

	We have a selection of \MI{UNIX shells}\MAI{shells} on line.  In addition
	to the standard Bourne (\MITOK{sh})\MAI{Bourne shell} and C (\MITOK{csh})
	shells\MAI{C shell} we also have \MITOK{tcsh} and \MITOK{bash} (the
	\MI{Born Again SHell}).  All of them are in \TOK{/bin} except \MITOK{bash}
	which is in \TOK{/usr/local/bin}.

	The two standard editors we supply are \MITOK{vi} and \MITOK{ue}
	(\MI{microEmacs} Version~3.10).

	We have \MITOK{kermit} to enable you to transfer files\MAI{file transfer}
	in and out of the system.  One of these days we will get hold of
	\MI{Zmodem}.

	Remember that the \MI{UNIX manual pages} are on line.  For information
	about a command `\TOK{foo}', run the `\MITOK{man}' command `\TOK{man foo}'
	at the UNIX shell prompt.  Try running `\TOK{man man}' to tell you about
	how `\MITOK{man}' works.  There is something like~7.5MB or about~3,000
	pages of on-line information there.

	Ask questions about the system, in the first instance, of the USENET group
	\MITOK{exnet.questions}.

	Report any problems, or make suggestions for improvement to the user called
	`\MITOK{sysadmin}'.  Mailing to \TOK{sysadmin} is the recommended way.  The
	sysadmin can be contacted from outside the system as
	\MITOK{sysadmin@exnet.co.uk}.

	If all else fails, \MI{telephone} us!

	\item
	Other facilities will be added from time to time; peripheral ones may be
	withdrawn.  This document will be updated to reflect that, but one you are
	using the system the way to keep uo to date is to read the
	\MITOK{exnet.alert} group on USENET\@.

\end{itemize}

\section*{Acknowledgements}

Many thanks to John De~Armond (\MITOK{jgd@dixie.com}) for sending us some of
his introductory documents to give us some idea as to what form ours should
take.
