<p>There is a lot you can do without installing any software on your own machine. Using a browser, you can logon to the Expo online system ("the website", also known as "troggle") as user 'expo' at <ahref="/accounts/login/">the Troggle User Login page</a>. (Ask another expoer for the 'cavey:beery' password.) You can:
<ul>
<li>Edit any HTML page in the online handbook: correct errors, update phone numbers
<li>Edit existing Survex files in our complete Loser cave data repository
<li>Create new Survex files - a template is provided - for new cave passages
<li>Edit the cave description and entrance description text for existing caves
<li>Create entirely new caves in the system by filling out online forms
<p>And using email to send the results to an expo nerd, you can:
<ul>
<li>Type up your logbook entry for any trip you do (surface or underground), but please use <ahref="../logbooks.html">our standard format</a>
<li>Upload GPS tracks from your phone
<li>Send photos of cave entrances and cavers doing mad things
<li>Sketch rigging plans on paper, photograph them, and email them
<li>Regularly take photos of pages of '<ahref="../bierbook.html">the bier book</a>' and 'the sesh book' and email them, to protect against accidental 'Gössering'
<li>Regularly take photos of pages of '<ahref="../logbooks.html">the handwritten expo logbook</a>', also to protect against accidental 'Gössering' but also against permanent loss. We are missing several vital logbooks from past expos through carelessness.
</ul>
<p>and of course using your phone or laptop you can update entries on expo antics on public forums such as ukcaving.
<p>We are actively working on increasing the number of expo activities that can be done with just a browser and no installed software.
<li>A full <ahref="yourlaptop.html">expo data maintenance computer</a> and Android phone config
<li>An <ahref="../troggle/troglaptop.html">expo software development computer</a> for troggle programming
</ul>
<h2id="basic">Your own basic laptop</h2>
<p>If you are new to expo please use the <em>expo laptop</em> first. You don't <em>need</em> to use your own laptop - which can take several hours to configure completely.
<p>To set up your own basic laptop for all cave data maintenance you need to do this:</p>
<li>Clone two <ahref="../computing/repos.html">expo repositories</a><var>loser</var> and <var>drawings</var> so you have the files on your machine. (Use the <ahref="qstart-git.html">git reminder</a> for how to do this, e.g. <em>git clone ssh://expo@expo.survex.com:/home/expo/expoweb</em> [actually <var>los</var> is still (Oct.2021) using mercurial not git.</li>
<li>Install image editing software such as Irfanview or gimp.
<li>If you are also planning on extensive work rewriting parts of the handbook, then you will also need the <ahref="../computing/repos.html">expo repository</a><var>expoweb</var>.
<p>The <em>expo laptop</em> is a basic laptop configuration. It has everything for editing and testing survey files (survex, aven, cavern), drawings (tunnel, therion), scanned images of sketches and centre-lines, and photographs. The <em>expo laptop</em> in the potato hut is also physically connected to a flatbed scanner but you can use your phone camera instead and email the images to yourself on your laptop.
<p>The <em>expo laptop</em> may also have some software for managing vector images (such as rigging guides), <ahref="https://paperless.bheeb.ch/">PocketTopo</a> files, <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system">GIS digital maps</a> and <ahref="https://activityworkshop.net/software/gpsprune/development.html">GPS tracks</a>. See the <ahref="yourlaptop.html">full data maintenance laptop configuration</a> for details.
<p>Managing large sets of photographs and scanned images, and managing several folders of these on your laptop and on <var>expofiles</var> on the server is finicky and time-consuming. Many programmers use rsync to help them with this, but if you have never used rsync, now is <em>not</em> the time to learn. Use filezilla and FTP. It is at this point that if you are using a Windows machine, you <em>really</em> need to <ahref="winlaptop.html#problems">read about how expo uses hard and soft links and filenames on Windows</a>. If things get screwed up badly, it will need someone on a Linux machine to sort it out.
<p>Once you have got all this working, and if it doesn't do what you want or you don't understand how to use it,
look at the <ahref="yourlaptop.html">full data maintenance laptop configuration</a> for everything else.
<p>If you are just typing up logbook entries then you don't need any other software. If you are working with survey data download this software (short list):
<li><ahref="https://survex.com/download.html">Survex</a>, including the Aven visualisation tool.
<li><ahref="https://github.com/CaveSurveying/tunnelx">Tunnel</a>: 2.5D cave drawing program based on Survex-compatible data which can also read PocketTopo files. (Generally called 'tunnel' even though the project and executable is actually 'tunnelx'.)
<li><ahref="https://therion.speleo.sk/">Therion</a> - Therion processes survey data and generates maps or 3D models of caves.
</ul>
<h2id="configuration">Configuration</h2>
<p>Follow this link to <ahref="keyexchange.html">register a key with the expo server</a> to get upload (i.e. read/write) access.
