install

A C++ class library for scientific computing

Installation procedure for Blitz++


1.  Installation

1.1 From tarfile

Unpack blitz-VERSION.tar.gz in the directory of your choice.  The file 
blitz-VERSION.tar.gz file will unpack into a subdirectory blitz-VERSION.  

Now cd into blitz-VERSION, and run the configure script.  Blitz++ now
uses a standard configure script generated using GNU autoconf/automake.
For a typical system, simply running ./configure with no options is
sufficient.  The configure script will explore your system to discover 
the available compilers and appropriate options to use.  To select a
different C++ compiler than the one discovered automatically, give the 
option CXX=<compiler-name>.  The standard configure option --prefix=<dir>
may be used to select the installation directory for Blitz++.  Type
"./configure --help" to see a summary of all the available options.

Once you have run the configure script, do:
        make lib

This is a minimal build of just the Blitz++ library.  You can also do:

        make check-testsuite  Build and check the testsuite
        make check-examples   Build and check the examples
        make check-benchmarks Build and check the benchmarks (long)
	make install          Install Blitz++

1.2 From cvs repository 

After you have checked out the latest version of Blitz from the cvs
repository, you will need to create the configure script.  Do:

	autoreconf -fiv

This will run autoconf, aclocal and automake for you to generate the
configure and libtool scripts and all of the Makefile.in files.  You 
may need to update your system's installed versions of autoconf, automake
and libtool in order for the autoreconf process to work properly.  Once 
you have successfully generated a configure script, the installation 
procedure for Blitz++ is identical as with a tarfile. 

Note however that you might get into trouble when running the command
"make". If the command aborts with the following type of messages:

WARNING: `aclocal-1.6' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
          you modified `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'.  You might want
          to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages.  Grab them from
          any GNU archive site.

WARNING: `automake-1.6' is missing on your system.  You should only need it if
          you modified `Makefile.am', `acinclude.m4' or `configure.in'.
          You might want to install the `Automake' and `Perl' packages.
          Grab them from any GNU archive site.

You should just need to update the date of the file "configure". You can do
that by running the following command:

touch configure

You can then proceed with make.


2.  Setting up symbolic links

If you have root privileges, you can install some symbolic links
to the headers and library.  Suppose you unpacked blitz in
/software/Blitz++; then do these commands:

# ln -s /software/Blitz++/blitz /usr/include/blitz
# ln -s /software/Blitz++/lib/libblitz.a

If you prefer, you can use "make install" to copy the header files, 
library, examples and documentation into the installation directory.

3.  Getting started

There are example programs in the "examples" directory.
The original Blitz++ documentation is found in the "manual" directory.
Point your browser at manual/index.html, or do "gv manual/blitz.ps".
However, this form of the documentation is no longer being actively
maintained.  More up-to-date documentation is kept in the "doc" directory.

4.  OTHER COMPILERS

If you want to try Blitz++ with a compiler that does not seem to work
with the configure autoconf script, I suggest the following approach:

  1. Check the "supported platforms" list at:
     http://oonumerics.org/blitz/platforms

     and the development mailing list at:
     http://oonumerics.org/blitz/contribute/blitz-dev/archive/index.html

     to see what progress has been made on your compiler.
     
  2. Go into the compiler subdirectory and run the bzconfig
     script.  This will exercise your compiler to see what
     language features it supports.  If it doesn't have
     member templates and enum computations, just give up.

  3. Install autoconf (from e.g., ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu)
     if you don't have it already.

  4. Edit the m4/ac_cxx_flags_preset.m4 file to add an appropriate case 
     and options for your compiler.  Then invoke autoconf to generate 
     the configure script.  Then try configure with the CXX=<compiler> 
     option.  Repeat until it works...

  5. Try building the testsuite ('make check-testsuite').

  6. Holy schmoly!  It works!  Please drop a note to
     [e-mail] and include:

        - name and info about your compiler
        - diffs for configure.in or ac_cxx_flags_preset.m4, if any
        - the file <blitz/config.h>