Setting up the CSC 151 Environment
If you follow along with the normal class schedule, you
should set up the environment by doing the labs. You will install
standard programs in the
introductory Linux lab. You will set up some custom libraries
in the lab on drawings as values
(and be reminded of how to do so in some subsequent labs). This document
provides a bit more background and a bit more detail.
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If you don't have them already, create taskbar icons for GIMP and
DrDracket by dragging them from the Application menu to the task bar.
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Open a terminal window.
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Type
/home/rebelsky/bin/csc151-setup -
Close your terminal window
CSC 151 uses two “off the shelf” programs, the GNU
Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and DrRacket. It also uses some
libraries GIMP and DrRacket to allow the two programs to communicate with
each other. (Both the programs and the libraries also rely on a host
of standard Linux software installed in the MathLAN.) Hence, to configure
your MathLAN account to work in CSC 151, you should install icons for
GIMP and DrRacket if you don't have them already. You will also need
to tell each application where to find the libraries. You'll also need
to know how to tell the applications to communicate.
To install an icon, you simply need to click and drag it from the
applictions menu (in the lower-left-hand corner of your screen) into
the task bar (at the bottom of your screen). GIMP is in the
submenu. DrRacket is in the the
submenu.
You can just type /home/rebelsky/bin/csc151-setup
to install these plugins.
GIMP allows programmers (and users) to extend it using small programs
called “plugins”. We've written plugins that allow GIMP
to communicate over DBus and to add a few more features. Many GIMP
plugins are installed in a common system area. However, we don't
have permissions to install them there, and we anticipate updating the
plugins. Hence, we have you install the plugins in your own account.
All of the plugins that you will use are stored in
/glimmer/share/gimp/plugins.
gimp-dbus permits the GIMP to communicate over DBus.
ggimp-irgb-components and ggimp-irgb-new
help GIMP deal with an integer RGB representation that's faster for
DrRacket to process.
ggimp-rgb-list and ggimp-rgb-parse provide
mechanisms for getting color names and converting color names to
integer RGB representation.
There are a variety of ways to install personal
GIMP plugins, but all of them put the plugin in
/home/username/.gimp-2.8/plug-ins.
Since we may be updating these plugins, we have you install “soft
links”
First, we make sure that the directory exists.
$ mkdir -P /home/user/.gimp-2.8/plug-ins
Next, we create soft links for each of the plugins.
$ ln -s /glimmer/share/gimp/plugins/plugin /home/user/.gimp-2.8/plug-ins
By the way, if you want to see the source code to these plugins,
it lives on github at https://github.com/GlimmerLabs/gimp-dbus.
Installing Racket Libraries
You can just type /home/rebelsky/bin/csc151-setup
to install these libraries.
We use two libraries for Racket in CSC 151. The
louDBus library allows Racket to communicate with
a variety of other programs using the DBus protocol. The Glimmer
Improved GIMP Library for Scripting (or gigls)
adds specific resources for communicating with GIMP and making it
easier to program GIMP.
On most MathLAN workstations, louDBus is installed in
/glimmer/lib/louDBus and gigls is installed in
/glimmer/lib/gigls. (If they are not installed, you
should let us know ASAP.)
To tell Racket where to look for libraries, you use the raco
link command. Hence, you could type the following (without
the dollar sign prompts).
$ raco link /glimmer/lib/louDBus
$ raco link /glimmer/lib/gigls
But most people will find it easier to just use the script we've
written.
By the way, if you want to see the source code to these libraries,
it lives on github at https://github.com/GlimmerLabs/louDBus
and http://github.com/GlimmerLabs/gigls.
Choosing the DrRacket Language
It turns out that DrRacket can support a variety of programming
languages (most of them variants of Scheme). We'd like to configure
DrRacket so it's easy for us to tell it what language to use.
In the menu, select . In the dialog box that appears, click on
Use the language declared in the source. Then
click Ok. Finally, click Run.
That should be it - you're ready to go.
