Requirements
and
Implementation
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The Unix distribution for VisVIP in source code format requires
certain supporting software. VisVIP -
-
depends on common Web Metrics resource code; you must install these resources
before compiling the VisVIP source.
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is written in standard C; therefore you will need
an ANSI standard C compiler.
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invokes OpenGL and the GLX library
(extensions to X Windows for OpenGL) for 3D graphic output.
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invokes Xlib for graphic input
(mouse, spaceball, keyboard).
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uses a few Unix system calls (system, getenv).
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launches a Tcl/Tk process for the control menu. Thus you need
a Tcl/Tk implementation
installed on your system.
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exchanges information with the Tcl/Tk menu via generated X events.
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uses Netscape
for text display and to show pages of website.
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Download
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On your machine, create the standard
directory structure for WebMetrics if it does not already exist.
Code specific to VisVIP will be stored in $WEB_TOOLS/VisVIP/; its
libvip subdirectory contains application-specific functions used by
VisVIP.
Go to our NIST Web
Metrics download page to download the VisVIP software. Copy
VisVIP-source.tar.gz into the $WEBMET_TOOLS/ directory and then do:
gunzip VisVIP-source.tar.gz (to produce VisVIP-source.tar)
tar -xvf VisVIP-source.tar (to generate the VisVIP tree)
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VisVIP Files
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The following explains the purpose of the various files in the
VisVIP directory. Most of these can be used as is, but a few may
require minor editing. The file that will most likely need some
modification is Makefile. It contains absolute directory names
for various resources which should be changed to reflect their new
location on your machine. Look for commented lines containing
"MODIFY?" as likely places to edit.
- VisVIP directory
-
contains the main code needed for VisVIP
- Makefile
- Should build your system with a little editing - read it for
self-documentation. Note especially that the MYPGM variable must be
set to the name of your source code file and the RESOURCES variable to
the name of your resource directory. The current version of the
makefile is interpretable by GNU/make (see
http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/home.html).
For other implementations of make, YMMV.
- visvip.c
- source code for VisVIP
- visvip.tk
- tk code for VisVIP control window
- libvip subdirectory
-
has application-specific functions used by VisVIP
- Makefile
- Used for first-time creation of the library archive.
- v-*.c
- various functions used by VisVIP
- defs.h
- application-specific definitions used by these functions
- meta.h
- all definitions used by the libvip functions
- tcl subdirectory
-
application-specific code to support message exchange
between the control menu and the OpenGL process
- xchg-event.c
- source code for enhanced Tcl interpreter
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Compilation
and
Cleanup
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Here are the steps for building the executable from source code:
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Compilation of VisVIP depends on the prior download and compilation of
the generic graphics functions, as described on the Web Metrics resources page.
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Make sure GNU make is installed (see
http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/home.html if you need to download it).
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Edit the Makefiles in the VisVIP and VisVIP/libvip directories. Look
for the lines with a "MODIFY?" comment and make sure that they point
to the proper directories.
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Edit the first line of visvip.tk to point to the enhanced Tcl
interpreter (this should get built by the Makefile):
#!/.../VisVIP/tcl/xchg-event.interp
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cd to the libvip directory and execute the make command
(the GNU version) to build the object files and library
lib-vip.a.
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cd back up to the VisVIP directory and execute the make
command (the GNU version) to build the executable visvip.oglx
and the special Tcl interpreter xchg-event.interp.
-
You can delete the original VisVIP-source.tar.gz file
to save room, if desired.
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NIST Web Metrics