Message about Poplog for v15.62, Updated for v15.63: 29 Jun 2009

From Aaron Sloman
To: pop-forum
Subject: Ready for testing:  PC/Linux Poplog  (V15.63)

The installation mechanism should work on recent versions of linux
whether they use XFree86 with graphical facilities in

    /usr/X11R6/bin/   /usr/X11R6/lib/  etc.

or the newer X.org systems where graphical facilities are in
    /usr/bin    /usr/lib   etc.

The new version of poplog is accessible here, with instructions:
    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63

If you wish you can download the tar file and the scripts for
checking the environment and installing poplog separately.

Alternatively you can try the new, simpler installation procedure
available for testing, as described below.

(Even if you have a working version of poplog I'd be grateful if you
could test the new one, especially if you are using Ubuntu or Suse.)

There are now two (very similar) shell scripts, described below,
either of which which can be run to download and install everything
required.

If you wish you can manually run the commands in the script, one
at a time, and decide at the end what sort of installation you wish.
The two scripts provide two cases:
    (a) download and install in /usr/local
and
    (b) download and install below the directory in which the
        script is run.

PRECONDITIONS:

Ubuntu users need to make sure first that they have these
packages installed:

     gcc
     build-essential
     csh
     libmotif3
     libmotif-dev

e.g. install them with the command:

    sudo apt-get install gcc build-essential csh libmotif3 libmotif-dev

(I am not sure that csh is still necessary: I have been trying to
remove the dependency on it, but there may still be some scripts
that use it.)

The motif (or lesstif equivalent) libraries are not absolutely
essential, as poplog can be linked to use only the basic X window
facilities. However the editor provides more functionality if motif
is installed.

People using other versions of linux should check that they have
the gcc libraries, csh/tcsh and both of

    either
        motif
        motif-devel

    or
        lesstif
        lesstif-devel

If you are using a 64 bit version of linux you will need to have a
full complement of 32-bit development libraries in order to install
poplog v15.63. Failing that there is a slightly older 64 bit version
of poplog here

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.61-amd64/

For a newer 64 bit version see (this file, in preparation):

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.62-amd64


========

FETCHING AND INSTALLING THE NEW VERSION OF POPLOG

Fetch one of these two shell scripts, which can be run to do
everything you need.

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/get-and-install-v15.63-poplog
        Download files in a directory v15.63/ where the script is
        invoked and install poplog in /usr/local/poplog64

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/get-and-install-v15.63-poplog-here
        Run this in a directory dir to download files into
        dir/v15.63 and then install poplog in dir/v15.63/pop
        (before running the script you can change the directory
        name, if you wish)

If you wish, you can download one of them. make it executable and
run it in an xterm or other console window, without reading any of
the rest of this message, which explains their functioning.

================================
WHAT THE SCRIPTS DO

Both scripts do the following, in addition to printing out what they
are doing:

    create subdirectory v15.63, and cd into it

    use wget to fetch these files:

        http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/AREADME.txt

        http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/CHECK_LINUX_FACILITIES

        http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/INSTALL_BHAM_LINUX_POPLOG

    make the last two files executable, using 'chmod'.

    use wget to fetch the main file (about 19MBytes, so can take
    some time):
        http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/bham-linux-poplog-v15.63.tar.gz


After that they do different things. The first script runs:

    ./INSTALL_BHAM_LINUX_POPLOG motif bham default links > install.log

        Install poplog linked to use motif, with 'birmingham'
        extensions, in the default directory /usr/local/poplog/
        created if necessary, and insert useful symbolic links in
        /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/man1/

        Save all output, except error output in the file install.log

The second script runs:

    ./INSTALL_BHAM_LINUX_POPLOG motif bham `pwd`/pop nolinks > install.log

        Install poplog linked to use motif, with 'birmingham'
        extensions, in the new subdirectory pop/ below the directory
        containing the install script. Do not insert links.

        Save all output, except error output in the file install.log

=======
RUNNING THE SCRIPTS TO DO THE INSTALLATION

After fetching and saving one of the two scripts described above

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/get-and-install-v15.63-poplog

    http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/v15.63/get-and-install-v15.63-poplog-here

You can open an xterm or other console window and make the file
readable and executable:

E.g.

    chmod ugo+rx get-and-install-v15.63-poplog
OR
    chmod ugo+rx get-and-install-v15.63-poplog-here

Then run the script, e.g.

    ./get-and-install-v15.63-poplog
OR
    ./get-and-install-v15.63-poplog-here


NB: before running the script, if you don't have either
    motif and motif-devel
or  lesstif and lesstif-devel

then you can edit the script by replacing 'motif' with 'nomotif' in
the INSTALL command. near the end.

If you chose 'nomotif' you will get a fully functional poplog minus
a few extra frills, like menu buttons and a slider bar in XVed the
window-based editor.

When you run the get-and-install or get-and-install-here script you
may get some warning messages about creating new directories, which
can be ignored. If there are other error messages please save them
using the mouse, i.e. copy then paste them into a file, and report
them.

If your installation fails, the v15.63/install.log file should
contain useful information. So you can post it to either pop-forum
or comp.lang.pop for diagnosis.


====
TESTING THE INSTALLATION
If the installation is successful you can go to the installation
directory, i.e.
        /usr/local/poplog/
or
        dir/v15.63/pop/

and then do

    cd current-poplog/bin/demos

ls -l will reveal something like this:

    -rw-r--r-- 1 axs staff 3638 Jan 18  2005 AREADME-DEMOS.txt
    -rw-r--r-- 1 axs staff 1887 Jan 18  2005 bash-users-default-dir
    -rw-r--r-- 1 axs staff 2618 Jan 18  2005 bash-users-nondefault-dir
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 axs staff    9 Apr  3 14:47 poplog -> ../poplog
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 axs staff   12 Apr  3 14:47 poplog.sh -> ../poplog.sh
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 axs staff  404 Nov 12  2003 run-eliza
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 axs staff  601 Nov 12  2003 run-eliza-nonstop
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 axs staff  620 May 27  2005 simagent-demo
    -rw-r--r-- 1 axs staff 2192 Jan 18  2005 tcsh-users-default-dir
    -rw-r--r-- 1 axs staff 2922 Jan 18  2005 tcsh-users-nondefault-dir

You can start testing the installation by running the pop-11 eliza
program:

    ./run-eliza

A more complicated test, including the 2-D graphical facilities
can be run by giving the command

    ./simagent-demo

More information is in the file AREADME-DEMOS.txt

Using a 10Mb/sec cable modem connection in the UK I found that on a
fairly new machine the whole process takes two or three minutes
at most. For many users the main delay will probably be downloading
the 18Mbyte tar file.

I would be grateful to hear of successful or unsuccessful attempts
to use this installation mechanism.


===
Aaron Sloman
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/