Ribbons Source Code

Installation

A basic familiarity with UNIX and system administration is assumed. Everything has been set up for the C-shell. It is assumed you have all the source code directories from over the net.

Important Note: Please read the file 'Read.Me' in the ~ribbons/install directory, which is probably more up-to-date than this page.

Compilation

As distributed, the `ribbons' software suite should be ready to run on any SGI system. There may also be a ready-to-run version available for other systems - check it out on the web site.

Else, you will need to recompile by executing the commands in this directory:

Special notes for Compaq (DEC) Alpha machines

The widgets connecting X/GL are in a different place than on the SGI. Suggest you make symbolic links of the small *.h files, (else change LOTS of includes, or hack on the Makefiles). You need root permission to do this:
cd /usr/include/GL
ln -s /usr/include/X11/GLw/GLwMDrawA.h .
ln -s /usr/include/X11/GLw/GLwDrawA.h .

You must have the TIFF libraries installed if you want to save images. TIFF and other libraries are available from: http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/demos/ossc-v5.0/html/shwindex.htm or you can get them from my compilation, tiff 3.4, version 5.1 alpha. You need:
/usr/lib/libtiff.a
/usr/include/tiff.h, tiffio.h, etc

Special notes for Linux boxes

These boxes require currently too much care and feeding for my taste. Have relied on the kindness of strangers (especially Suhaib Siddiqi of Inspire Pharmaceuticals) to get this going. The problem is getting the right X/Motif/OpenGL libraries in place. I hope more kind strangers will provide me with working Makefiles and/or libraries for their particular setup.

Currently, two setups are supported:
linux == just like on my box, with these libs loaded:
-lXm -lGLw -lGLU -lGL -ltiff -lX11 -lXt -lXext -lXp -lm

mesa == just like on David Johnson's box, with these libs:
-L/usr/X11R6/lib -lMesaGLw -lXm -lXt -lGLU -lGL -lX11 -lXext -lXp -ltiff -lm

Program testing

To test the `ribbons' distribution, after recompiling if necessary, and setting your command path:

First, as a normal user, create a new directory and go there, eg:

mkdir ribtest
cd ribtest

Then execute the perl script test protocol interactively:

ribbons-test

This runs over 40 representative commands with various options, and compares their output to that in $RIBBONS_HOME/test. A summary is output to the terminal, and a complete record is saved to the file `ribbons-test.log' Several `differences' will appear, just due to temporary file names. Please report any non-trivial errors to me!
carson@uab.edu


Program organization

The default distribution consists of the main ``$RIBBONS_HOME'' directory and the following subdirectories:

The source code distribution consists of Makefiles, C++ ( *.C ) source code (and some FORTRAN), and *.h include files in the following subdirectories:

Changing things

If you are feeling lucky, dig right in.
If you have a support license, I'll be happy to advise and might even help.

Theory

See
references.

Disclaimer

If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. UNIX fortune
Ribbons User Manual / UAB-CBSE / carson@uab.edu