<li>You should be able to use any OS (Linux, Windows, Mac) to interact with expo, but it's a bit simpler to get set up using Linux. You can't yet do everything on a phone, but you can do some things.</li>
<li>The <i>expo laptop</i> uses <ahref="https://www.debian.org/intro/about">Debian</a> with the <ahref="https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-cinnamon-desktop-environment-on-debian/">Cinnamon</a> interface, but pretty much any Linux system works fine. This handbook does assume that you are using apt - the Debian package manager - which is good for all Debian-derived Linuxes such as <ahref="https://ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>. Old, slow machines without much memory can be very effective with <ahref="https://xubuntu.org/">Xubuntu/xfce</a>. If using a Red-Hat-based linux you'll need to work out the equivalent rpm/yum commands.</li>
<li>Windows machines can do almost everything needed directly in Windows itself (rsync is a problem), but some useful software has no Windows version and you will need to find your own equivalents. There are also some 'gotchas' to look out for due to filesystem differences (e.g letter case). If you have the choice, use Linux. Windows/Linux WSL is as complete as Linux.</li>
<li><ahref="winlaptop.html">A Windows laptop for expo</a> - a page of more detailed instructions for those who are definitely going to be using a Windows PC or laptop.</li>
<p></a>Long-standing Expo policy is to use open tools and protocols so we can retain control of our own data over the long term. And not to require expo-goers to sign up to external services or spend money on software.
So we use <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software">FOSS software</a>.
You can use other software on your own machine if it is format-compatible and exports data in the formats we want,
<li><ahref="fzconfig.html">Filezilla</a> - ftp GUI software with a configuration file to get to the expo server (since October 2021 you can't use ftp:// in a Chrome browser anymore)</li>
<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://sourceforge.net/projects/viking/">Viking</a> - an alternative to GPSprune. The <ahref="https://github.com/viking-gps/viking">code</a> is on github.
<li>python, if you are extending troggle or the scripts in expoweb/noinfo/ - already installed on Linux <imgsrc="https://www.python.org/favicon.ico"width=64hspace="20"align="right">
<li><ahref="https://vectr.com/user-guide/">Vectr svg</a> - quick and easy sketcher (browser-based, Chrome only) for making rigging topo diagrams: "free forever" committment, but not open source. Please export as svg not jpg or png.
<li><ahref="https://github.com/patrickbwarren/inkscape-survex-export">inkscape-survex</a> - Patrick's plugin to export a traced inkscape line drawing to a survex file.
<li><ahref="http://www.thomas-holder.de/projects/inkscape-speleo/extensions/">inkscape-speleo</a> - plugin to import/export survex, therion and pockettopo files to the drawing package inkscape.
<li><ahref="https://imagemagick.org/script/">Imagemagick convert</a> for re-scaling photographs and scanned images and converting from PDF to JPG. (NB you may need to fix this <ahref="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52998331/imagemagick-security-policy-pdf-blocking-conversion">security issue</a>)
<p>Nearly all our Austrian surveys have beeen produced using Tunnel (or were hand-drawn) but many smaller caves and some areas of SMKsystem are done with Therion because Therion does elevations and Tunnel doesn't. Expo has a policy decision on which to use: if it is an entirely new disconnected cave, then use Therion. If it is a passage in a cave where previously we used Tunnel, then use Tunnel. See also <ahref="/expofiles/tunnelwiki/wiki/pages/Other_Cave_Software.html">Comparison of Tunnel to Other Cave Software</a>.</p>
<p>Note that on a Debian/Ubuntu machine you should normally install the versions that come with the distro (i.e. install using 'apt install xxx', not be downloading things from the above sites</p>
<li>Your favourite text editor. gedit is installed on the <em>expo laptop</em> and has syntax highlighting for .svx files too. This works with <ahref="https://survex.com/changes.html">all GtkSourceView-based editors</a> (thanks to Phil Withnall). Download a local copy of the syntax colourizer <adownloadhref="/site_media/survex.lang">survex.lang</a>.
<h4>For Linux and WSL (text mode only) Windows users only:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Survex is a package on debian and ubuntu but is not up to date. You need to attach to a ppa to get the latest survex:
<ahref="https://survex.com/download.html?platform=debian">ubuntu and debian</a> download. This is also the version to use on WSL for doing 'cavern' command-line things in WSL (such as doing troggle imports of all the svx data)
<li><ahref="https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html">PuTTY</a> including pagent. Version 0.73 was released on 2019-09-29. You need this to generate and to use ssh keys on Windows. Otherwise none of git, scp, ftp or rsync will work. It includes command line tools ssh, scp (pscp) and sFTP (psftp).
<li><ahref="">VS Code</a> is a free (but not FOSS) editor with in-built git capability and plug-ins which render git branches graphically. Also available for Linux.
<li><ahref="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/">Notepad++</a> or any other syntax-highlighting code editor for HTML and python. We have a syntax-highlighter to colourize .svx files, download it: <ahref="/site_media/survex.xml">survex.xml</a>.
<li><ahref="https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/">python for windows</a>. We moved from python 2.7 to python 3.7 in 2020; but we generally use the Linux environment on Windows machines (WSL) and use the python version there, not the Windows python.
<p>A short note about the phenomenon of VS code is in order. Not really for beginners but here are <ahref="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/learn/modules/python-install-vscode/">instructions for configuring it for python</a>. In case you didn't know, by 2019 over <ahref="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology">half</a> of all software developers used this editor for their Linux and Windows work and it is undoubtedly more now.
<li><ahref="https://www.termius.com/">Termius</a> - command line to create a key for your phone, to ssh (and mosh) login to the expo server. To get sftp you have to buy it.
<li><ahref="https://sites.google.com/site/speleoapps/home">TopoDroid</a> makes cave surveys with the DistoX.
<li><ahref="https://sites.google.com/site/speleoapps/home">Cave3D</a> is a Therion 3D viewer.
<li><ahref="https://sites.google.com/site/speleoapps/home">ThManager</a> organizes single surveys, exported by TopoDroid, into Therion projects encoded by Therion "thconfig" files.
<p>You need to <ahref="keyexchange.html">register a key with the expo server</a> to get upload (i.e. read/write) access. Do this first, Without it none of git, scp, ftp or rsync will work.
<p>On a Windows machine you will need to configure pageant (the putty authentication agent)
to <ahref="https://blog.shvetsov.com/2010/03/making-pageant-automatically-load-keys.html">run at startup to load your key</a>. Note that you are loading your <em>private</em> key, the .ppk file, into pageant and that this key never leaves your laptop.</p>
<p>The above gets the command-line PuTTY tools (ssd, sftp, pscp) running, but doesn't get rsync working. You might like to try <ahref="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23517023/rsync-from-windows-to-linux-using-puttys-pagent-authentication">this</a> (untested).</p>
<p>When using Windows please, please be <ahref="http://expo.survex.com/handbook/survey/getin.htm#filenames">excessively careful when naming files and survex names</a> and be <ahref="manual.html#quickstart">exceptionally careful when using rsync</a>.
where obviously you will be using your own locations for expofiles, expoweb, loser etc. instead of <var>/mnt/d/CUCC...</var> etc. This creates valid directory paths for, e.g. <var>/home/expo/loser</var> etc.
<li><ahref="../../documents/tunnel-loefflerCP35-only.pdf">Introduction to using Tunnel</a> - article by Dave Loeffler. This is really good and should be read first.
<li><ahref="http://expo.survex.com/expofiles/tunnelwiki/wiki/pages/Tunnel.html">The Tunnel tutorial</a> - installation notes and a wiki of examples and tutorials
<li><ahref="https://github.com/CaveSurveying/tunnelx">Tunnel - master copy since August 2019</a>. This is where the software is actively developed and is the most up to date copy, but the documentation is not as complete as in the other locations.
<ahref="https://webchat.freenode.net/#expo">#expo</a> - public. An open-access <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat">
open-access IRC channel</a>
(ephemeral, not archived) for real-time discussions about everything but mostly software people. If you are having trouble using the software try here first.
<li><ahref="https://github.com/join">Github</a> - You'll need an account if you want to use this.
<li><ahref="https://github.com/CaveSurveying/CUCCexposurveyissues/issues">Expo issues list</a> - Issues with data reduction for recent expos and software updates for tunnel
<li><ahref="https://bitbucket.org/product/">Bitbucket</a> - create an account to help develop tunnel. <imgsrc="https://tortoisehg.bitbucket.io/img/bitbucket-icon.png"width=64hspace="20"align="right">
<p>When maintaining the HTML files in the expo handbook a link-checker is useful to report bad URLs (links to external sites go bad regularly) and to find orphaned pages with no in-links. The website has <ahref="https://www.klebos.net/subdomains/keldos/LinkScans/TUNNEL-wiki-link-report.html">about 2,000 internal URLs</a> in just the Tunnel wiki section alone.
<li><ahref="https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/">Online brokenlinkcheck tool</a> - does not install on your laptop. Limited to 3,000 pages.
<li><ahref="https://www.deadlinkchecker.com/website-dead-link-checker.asp">Another online brokenlinkcheck tool</a> - does not install on your laptop. Limited to 2,000 pages but breadth-first rather than depth-first, so it covers a different chunk of the expo website.
<li><ahref="https://www.drlinkcheck.com/account/subscriptions/1/projects/1/overview">Yet another link-checker</a>, only 1,500 pages checked but oh-so-stylish results presentation. Very informative.
<li><ahref="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-find-broken-links-on-your-website-using-wget-on-debian-7">Linkchecking with wget</a> - command line methods on Linux
