[mesa-users] using MESA for education

[Dean Townsley]

I also saw having the students get familiar with the MESA environment as 
part of the learning process.  I think any piece of "real" custom 
scientific software, which a physics grad is not unlikely to encounter 
once they get a real job or go into research, is going to have a similar 
level of "special needs" for its required runtime environment or 
possibly moreso.  They may get lucky and just have the appropriate thing 
on hand or already installed for them, or they may be handed what some 
other person had set up but is no longer working and just have to figure 
it out.

But it concerns me that although I suggested the memory stick option to 
students who were starting with a windows-only PC, most of them opted 
for dual-boot instead, and without doing the appropriate preparatory 
backups and such.  It worked out for these particular students, but it 
could have gone very wrong.

As a result, I think more prudence on my part is critical so that they 
better understand the risks involved.  Realistically I should not help a 
student install linux dual boot on a PC until I have ensured that they 
have 1) backed up all their own data, 2) backed up or have installation 
media for any software they have on the computer that they need, and 3) 
made recovery disks per their vendor's instructions.  (Actually there is 
a fair chance that the student will have no idea how to make recovery 
disks, as vendors are not always clear on this.)  Really these are not 
strange "extra" safety measures, it is simple standard procedure for 
repartitioning.  I would never repartition my own machine without having 
taken these steps, so I shouldn't recommend, let alone assist, someone 
else to do it either.  I think when faced with the choice of doing all 
this or buying a $15 USB stick, many students will just buy the stick.  
Especially if there is a pre-canned "MESA-on-a-stick" installation!

Dean


On 06/08/2014 08:08 PM, James Lloyd wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Although I have not taught a course using MESA, I have taught a course that focusses on astronomical computing/data analysis.  In early versions of the course, the students worked in a pre-built and carefully controlled environment on lab computers.  More recently, the students use their own laptops and have to install python/IDL and learn how to install all the extra packages they will need.  All that futzing around with installations and compilers _is_ at least as important as the rest of it to get going in research, so I let it be one of the skills learned in the course.
>
> Give a student compiled code and you feed him for a day, teach a student to install a compiler and he's running code for a lifetime, or something like that...
>
> Regards,
>
> James
>
> On Jun 8, 2014, at 8:52 PM, Bill Paxton wrote:
>
>> On Jun 8, 2014, at 5:43 PM, Josiah Schwab wrote:
>>
>>> On  8 June 2014 at 12:14 PDT, Dean Townsley wrote:
>>>
>>>> My suggestion would be to provide a "live DVD" that can be put on a DVD
>>>> or USB stick and booted on a PC.  One that would contain a linux
>>>> distribution with MESA pre-built and setup.  Then the student could just
>>>> grab some inlists from dropbox or a website and go.  Ideally there might
>>>> be some user data area on a USB stick too.  Or just put important things
>>>> back on dropbox.
>>> As is, MESA (9GB) can't fit on a DVD (4GB).
>>
>> How big is it if you don't send all of mesa but instead just what is needed to run mesa/star.
>>
>> no source code.  tar files for data.
>>
>> i bet you could get that on a DVD.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Does anyone have any experience running MESA in a VM (e.g., VirtualBox)?
>>> Any idea how much of a performance hit there is?
>>>
>>> A VM image would have the advantage of not requiring the students to
>>> provide any installation media.
>>>
>>> Josiah
>>>
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