Software and Hardware Requirements

for installing and using the ML Kit with Regions

from http://www.itu.dk/research/mlkit/kit2

 

You will need a machine running UNIX, preferably with at least 64 Mb of RAM. (Although Kit applications are intended for small machines, creating them requires a lot of computation!) Region profiling requires a Postscript viewer, for example Ghostview.

• If you want to build an executable version of the Kit, click on kit2.tar.gz to obtain a file called kit2.tar.gz. (The file is big, due to embedded postscript pictures. In case of slow communication, use anonymous ftp to ftp.diku.dk and fetch diku/users/tofte/kit2.tar.gz) The UNIX command gunzip kit2.tar.gz will expand kit2.tar.gz, creating a file called kit2.tar. Thereafter, the UNIX command tar -xf kit2.tar will create a directory called version2 which contains documentation ("Programming with Regions in the ML Kit"), example programs, all the sources required to build the Kit plus instructions for how to build the Kit. You may experience problems with the Edinburgh Library .
• If you already have access to an executable Kit but want to create a script file of your own, then here is an example script file which you can modify as explained in ``Programming with Regions in the ML Kit''.
• If you are on a Sun or an HP of the appropriate kind (see below) and you want to save yourself building the Kit, you can get a "big" version of the Kit which also contains binaries (use hyperlink below or ftp to ftp.diku.dk and fetch diku/users/tofte/bigkit2.tar.gz).

HP PA-RISC (running HPUX v.9.0): this is the platform on which the ML Kit with Regions was developed and the only one for which we provide a native code generator. For linking target files with the runtime system, you need the cc compiler. bigkit2.tar.gz (same as kit2.tar.gz., but with script file and binaries).

SUN 4 SPARC STATION: (running SUN OS 4) here the Kit compiles SML to C. You will need a C compiler (gcc) and a linker (ld). bigkit2.tar.gz (same as kit2.tar.gz., but with script file and binaries).

Another UNIX platform The Kit compiles from SML to ANSI C. We have tried to keep our interface to UNIX clean, but we cannot guarantee that you do not run into operating system specific problems. You will have to build the Kit by compiling it on Standard ML of New Jersey, Version 93 (and no other), with the Edinburgh Library loaded. Standard ML of New Jersey is available on a wide variety of platforms. The Edinburgh Library comes in several versions, for different compilers. You must use the SML/NJ-specific variant when compiling the Kit (the portable version will not do). To compile Kit applications, the runtime system and the region profiler, you need an ANSI C compiler.

A non-UNIX platform: It might still be possible for you to build the Kit. You will need Standard ML of New Jersey (Version 93) on a machine for which it generatetes native code (our experience with running the Kit on top of SML/93 running in emulated mode on a Power Macintosh are not positive). Also, you will need the SML/NJ-specific version of the Edinburgh Library and an ANSI C compiler.

Irrespective of the platform, if you want to do Kit systems programming (i.e., to make a variant of the Kit) and want to use the built-in capabilities for automatic running and reporting of tests, you need the tcsh shell.

Maintained by tofte@itu.dk / April 17, 1997. Revised July 9, 1997.