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| Installing TopographicaTopographica is developed under Linux, and is also supported for Windows and Mac OS X. It should work on non-Linux versions of UNIX as well, as long as standard GNU tools like make and GCC are installed. Whatever platform you use, there are two ways to obtain Topographica. The first, described below and recommended for most users, is to download one of our installation packages for official releases. The second is to use Subversion (SVN), as described on a separate page, for users who want more frequent updates, or who need to modify the source code. If you want to run large simulations (requiring more than about 3 GB of memory), you should build and run Topographica on a 64-bit platform. No change to the installation procedure is necessary when when using such a platform. The following sections describe how to obtain Topographica and build it (if necessary) on Windows, OS X, and Linux/UNIX. WindowsWindows users will generally want to use the self-installing .exe file we provide. Once you have installed it, you can skip straight to the After Installation section below. Build from sourceIf instead you want to develop Topographica on Windows, or you want frequent updates, you will probably need to install some additional software on your machine. We first recommend that you install a more convenient environment for working at the command line than is provided by default. We support building Topographica on Windows via MSYS/MinGW. If your system does not already have MSYS/MinGW, please install MSYS 1.0.11 and MingGW 5.1.4 (from the MinGW download page). Other versions might work, but we have not tested them. In addition to MSYS, because we do not currently provide a method
to compile Python on Windows, it is also necessary to install Python
2.5 if your system does not already have it. An installer
package is available from Python.org. Note that currently Python
must be installed to Having installed Python, you also need to install some extra packages that we do not yet support building from source:
Once these requirements are all present, you can follow the common instructions below by using an MSYS terminal (double click on the MSYS icon on your desktop; note that while using an MSYS terminal, you can enter commands as given for Linux/UNIX rather than any alternative that might be given for Windows). Mac OS XAlthough we plan to offer a binary installer for OS X, none is yet available. Fortunately, building Topographica on OS X is straightforward. The instructions here assume you are using OS X 10.5 (Leopard), but should work on any version with minor alterations to provide the required libraries. PrerequisitesIf your system does not already have Apple's Xcode installed, download Xcode 3.0 from the Apple developer web site. Xcode provides the required GCC C/C++ compiler (among other development utilities). Other versions should also work, but have not necessarily been tested. Now it is necessary to install two third-party support libraries - libpng and freetype - if your system does not already have them. These provide the PNG format handling and the font handling for the matplotlib library used by Topographica, and can be installed however you wish: you can download binaries, or, if you have a package manager such as Fink or MacPorts, you can use it to obtain and install them. We have used Fink successfully:
If you have trouble running Finally, if you do not already have Tcl/Tk version 8.5 or later installed on your system, you will need to install it to use the Topographica GUI. The easiest method is to install ActiveTcl, although any Framework build of Tcl/Tk 8.5 should work. Having satisfied these prerequisites, you can follow the instructions for obtaining and building Topographica. Linux/UNIXCurrently, we do not offer binary installers for Linux, so it is necessary to build Topographica after obtaining it. This is usually straightforward. PrerequisitesMost Linux systems will already have the required libraries installed, so usually no action will be required here. On some Linux
distributions that start with a minimal set of packages included, such
as Ubuntu or the various "live CD" systems, you may need to specify
explicitly that some standard libraries be installed in your system,
such as
Once these libraries are installed, you can proceed to the common instructions for all platforms. All platformsThe instructions below assume you have followed any necessary platform-specific instructions described above. Obtaining TopographicaIf you want frequent updates, or you want to modify the source
code, please first follow our SVN
instructions. Otherwise, download either the Building TopographicaOnce you have satisfied the prerequisites for your platform and
have downloaded and extracted Topographica, type
If all goes well, a script named If desired, you can also make local copies of the HTML
documentation from the web site. To do so, you must have the php, m4,
bibtex, convert, and fig2dev commands installed; type After installationLinux, Mac, and Windows MSYS users can use the
Running Topographica interactively is described in more detail in the User Manual. If you want to get straight into working with a full network, a good way to begin is by working through the SOM or LISSOM tutorials. Have fun with Topographica, and be sure to subscribe to the topographica-announce mailing list to hear about future updates! |
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