DevelopmentEnvironmentAutotools

Using the old Autotools based buildsystem

Using autobuild all external dependencies can be automatically download and compiled.

Configure aka "The speedy way for Die Hards"

1.Install the development packages (in most distributions these are called packagename-devel) of: * >=Qt 4.2.x * GSL * OpenGL (for VIEW) (this package might be called something like mesa-devel). * Glew (optional, for VIEW) * Python 2.5/2.6 (optional) * FFTW 3 (optional) * lpsolve (optional) 1.Additionally you will need the following development tools: * !Lex/Flex * !Yacc/Bison * >= sip-4.8 (optional) (e.g. necessary packages for Kubuntu can be found here). 1.Enter the BALL source directory and type ./configure. If this fails it is most likely that some package has not been found. You must either install it if you did not already do so or manually specify the path to it. ./configure --help shows the available options. Something like {{{ ./configure --with-qt-libs=/usr/lib64/qt4/ --with-qt-incl=/usr/include/qt4/ --with-moc=/usr/bin/moc
--with-uic=/usr/bin/uic --with-python --enable-gsl --enable-fftw --with-python-libs=/usr/lib64 }}} usually does the job. 1.Type make && make install. If you specified everything correctly this should compile without issues, congratulations! In the meantime: Grab a drink. 1.If you want to build the Python bindings type {{{ cd source/PYTHON make && make install }}}

Environment Variables and BALLView

Now it is time to get BALLView up and running. Type: {{{ vi ~/.bashrc }}} where vi can be replaced by your favourite editor. You need to add the line: {{{ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/BALL/lib:/path/to/contrib/lib }}} This will tell your system where to look for the BALL libraries and their dependencies. Of course you only need to specify the path to the BALL-contrib directory if and only if you used the autobuild script, as the disribution packages usually install into the /usr/lib/ directories that are already on the search path.

now type {{{ #Instead of typing the first line you alternatively can open a new terminal source ~/.bashrc cd source/APPLICATIONS/BALLVIEW make ./BALLView }}} This builds and starts BALLView. If there should be troubles with executing BALLView this can be solved by creating the following short shell script (just copy and paste it into some file): {{{ #!/bin/sh export LC_NUMERIC="." #Try the one below if the above does not help export LC_ALL="C" ./BALLView }}}

This concludes the setup guide. For more information on how to hack on BALL see the BALL Hacking Guide or for simply writing applications using BALL have a look at the [wiki:Tutorials].