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 CSE 413 Au 2004 - Software
Software Tools

The software packages for this class are installed in the Math Sciences Computing Center . The download files provided here are only needed if you are doing the course work on some other system.

DrScheme

The DrScheme interpreter is available from the Scheme website for free download. DrScheme runs on Windows (95 and up), Mac OS, or Unix running the X Window System. DrScheme is useful given at least 128 MB of RAM. Installing DrScheme requires roughly 40 MB of disk space.

A local copy of the Windows installer (plt-208-bin-i386-win32.exe) is available. Installers for other systems (and the source files) can be found at the Scheme website. After downloading, run the installer program and a wizard will guide you through the installation process. When you first run the program, select "Standard (R5RS)" as the language.

There is a local copy of the Revised 5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme available from this site.

Graphviz

We will be using this graphics visualization package from ATT Research to draw some of the data structures that we are studying. The Graphviz information page is http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/.

A local copy of the Windows installer (graphviz-1.14.exe) is available. Installers for other systems (and the source files) can be found starting at the ATT page linked above.

The only program in the package that we actually need is "dot".

Postscript Viewer

The Graphviz program "dot" generates output in Postscript format. There are many viewers available for Postscript; you will need one for this class. I use GSview with Ghostscript on my Windows machines. The home page for GSview is http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/ where you will find the latest revision information for both GSview and Ghostscript.

Local copies of the Windows installers for Ghostscript (gs811w32.exe) and GSview (gsv44w32.exe) are available. Installers for other systems (and the source files) can be found starting at the GSview page linked above.

Install Ghostscript first, then GSview.

Java

For the last portion of the course, you'll need the following software:

  1. The Java SDK from Sun
  2. A programmer's editor like jEdit

The code you turn in should only rely on the standard Sun Java libraries. Your code should not rely on "wizards", special libraries that might be provided with your environment, or other special libraries from textbooks or the Internet. The programs that you turn in will be compiled and run using the setup described here.

Java SDK

You must first install the Java 2 Standard Edition Software Development Kit (SDK) from Sun Microsystems. Note that you need the J2SE development kit (SDK). You do not want the Netbeans IDE or the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). You can use J2SE version 1.3.1 or 1.4.

Download the installer from the Sun web pages (java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html). The Java 2 SDK can be installed and run on Windows 95/98/NT/W2000/XP and most Unix variants, including Linux and Sun/Solaris. Java 2 version 1.3 is included with Mac OS X, so you should be able to run the course software on OS X without having to install Java 2 first. Java 2 is not available for the classic Mac OS (OS 9 and earlier).

The distribution is big, roughly 36MB, so if you're connecting by slow modem, allow plenty of time.

To install, double-click on the installer program, and then follow the instructions. The Windows installer itself is fairly small, but it will download large files before actually doing the installation.

Some notes:

Java SDK documentation

Sun provides excellent documentation for all the class libraries that are part of the Java platform. I strongly recommend that you download and install the documentation. Unfortunately, the download file is also very large (31MB), but it is very useful to have the documentation at your finger tips while you are programming. The documentation is available from the same place you downloaded the JDK (java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html#docs) in the form of a large zip file. Download it, and unzip it into the same directory where you installed Java itself. For example, I will unzip the documentation for J2SE 1.4.2 into C:\apps\jdk142. This will give you all the html files that describe the Java libraries. If you add a link in your browser bookmarks, then you can get the documentation for any library method with just a few clicks of the mouse.

jEdit

jEdit is a programmer's editor. It is an open source project, written in Java, and freely available over the web at jedit.org. You don't need to use it if you have some other editor that you prefer.

  1. Go to the jEdit download page and download the appropriate version of the latest stable release. (local copy for Windows: jedit42install.exe)
  2. If you use .exe file above, simple follow the instructions and you are done. If you use the java installer instead, simply double-click on the JAR file you downloaded; the installer may start automatically.
  3. If it doesn't, then you will need to open an MS-DOS prompt (Start->Programs->MS-DOS Prompt) and enter the following commands:
  4. For example, if you downloaded jedit41install.jar into C:\Downloads, you would enter:
  5. If for whatever reason you want to start the installer in text-only mode, specify text as the last parameter on the command line. In text only mode, the installer will not display its GUI, and instead it will ask questions in the MS-DOS prompt.
  6. If you encounter a problem while installing jEdit, take a look at The jEdit FAQ

jEdit plugins

One of the nice things about jEdit is that it has a plug-in architecture and so there are quite a few useful utility modules that have been written to work with jEdit. Use the plug-in manager within jEdit to install them. Recommended plugins are:

Use menu item Utilities - Global Options - Docking to set quick access tabs for the various plugins. For instance, add the "Console" dock add you can then enter commands to change the working directory (use "cd"), which may be helpful.

Use Utilities - Global Options - Toolbar to create one-click buttons to compile, run, and close the current buffer. [Details: Click on the '+' button to add a new button. Then change the drop down that says "Built-in Commands" to the appropriate plug-in (like JCompiler, which you must have installed already above). Then just pick the appropriate command (like "Compile File"), and some icon. The gif image files and commands that I use for these buttons are
close24.gif + : Built-in Commands - Close
JavaCup24.gif + : Plugin: JCompiler - Compile File
Play24.gif + : Plugin: Console - Run Current Buffer ...
You can right-click and save the image files for your use, or use any other images that you like.

You're done!

The course software should be installed at this point. If you'd like, you can create shortcuts to the documentation and jEdit program files and put them in a more convenient place like the desktop or the QuickLaunch bar. Be sure to create shortcuts; don't move the files themselves. If you move them, things are likely to break.