-Identifying your system
-=======================
+## Identifying your system ##
We'll assume you're using either Mac OS X, or Windows, or Linux.
-If you're using Mac OS X, you'll be in one of two subgroups:
+If you're using **Mac OS X**, take note of what version of the Mac OS you're
+running: "Tiger" 10.4, or "Leopard" 10.5, or "Snow Leopard" 10.6. Furthermore,
+you'll be in one of two subgroups:
- * You'll have Apple's Xcode and the independent MacPorts system
+* You'll have Apple's Xcode and the independent MacPorts system
installed.
+
Xcode is available at
- <http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html>
+ <http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html>.
You have to register as an Apple Developer to download it. This
is free but requires you to accept a legal agreement with Apple.
The latest version of Xcode to work with Leopard is 3.14; more
recent versions require Snow Leopard.
The MacPorts system is available at
- <http://www.macports.org/>
+ <http://www.macports.org/>.
This automates the building of Unix-type software on your Mac; it
makes it a lot easier to check for dependencies, use more-recent
versions of things, and so on.
- * Or you won't have those installed. (Most Mac users will be in this group.)
+* Or you won't have those installed. (Most Mac users will be in this group.)
Then you'll need pre-packaged (and usually pretty GUI) installers for
everything. These are great when they're available and kept up-to-date;
however those conditions aren't always met.
- IN EITHER CASE, take note of what version of the Mac OS you're running:
- "Tiger" 10.4, or "Leopard" 10.5, or "Snow Leopard" 10.6.
-
-If you're using Windows, you'll be in one of two subgroups:
+If you're using **Windows**, you'll be in one of two subgroups:
- * You'll have the Cygwin system installed:
- <http://www.cygwin.com/>
+* You'll have the Cygwin system
+ <http://www.cygwin.com/> installed.
This puts a Unix-like layer on top of your Windows system,
and makes it easier for you to use the same software everybody
else will be using, without its needing as much special-for-Windows
treatment. However, many of you won't have this installed.
- * You won't have Cygwin installed. You might in theory have
- a different group of compilers installed (Microsoft ...), but
+* You won't have Cygwin installed. You might in theory have
+ a different group of compilers installed (Microsoft Visual C++) but
we'll assume that the overwhelming majority of users in this group
don't have access to a compiler and need pre-packaged installers
for everything.
-If you're using Linux, you could be using any one of numerous packaging
+If you're using **Linux**, you could be using any one of numerous packaging
systems.
- We'll give examples using the packaging system shared by Debian and Ubuntu,
+* We'll give examples using the packaging system shared by Debian and Ubuntu,
and we'll assume that those of you using different packaging systems will know
how to make the relevant substitutions. You may also want to take note of the
output of the "uname -srm" command. On my machine this tells me "Linux
- 2.6.35-ARCH x86_64". That tells me I'm running the x86_64 (as opposed to the
+ 2.6.35-ARCH x86\_64". That tells me I'm running the x86\_64 (as opposed to the
i686 or i386 or whatever) version of Linux, and that I'm running kernel
version 2.6.35.
-PLEASE REPORT PROBLEMS (AND SOLUTIONS!)
-=======================================
+## PLEASE REPORT PROBLEMS (AND SOLUTIONS!) ##
+
+We haven't tested these instructions ourselves, and they're not explicit
+step-by-step instructions in any case. If you encounter troubles, please email
+to let us know so that we can amend the instructions to help others. If you
+figure out how to fix the problem youself (and please do), please also write
+with suggestions how we can change these instructions to make the process
+easier and more straightforward for others.
+
+
+## Getting Scheme ##
+
+**Scheme** is one of two major dialects of *Lisp*, which is a large family of
+programming languages. The other dialect is called "Common Lisp." Scheme is the
+more clean and minimalistic dialect, and is what's mostly used in academic
+circles.
+
+Scheme itself has umpteen different "implementations", which share most of
+their fundamentals, but have slightly different extensions and interact with
+the operating system differently. One major implementation used to be called
+PLT Scheme, and has just in the past few weeks changed their name to Racket.
+This is what we recommend you use. (If you're already using or comfortable with
+another Scheme implementation, though, there's no compelling reason to switch.)
+
+Since the name change is so recent, you're likely to run across both sets of names.
+
+PLT/Racket stands to Scheme in something like the relation Firefox stands to HTML. It's one program among others for working with the language; and many of those programs (or web browsers) permit different extensions, have small variations, and so on.
+
+PLT Scheme had several components. The two most visible components for us
+were the command-line interpreter "mzscheme" and a teaching-friendly editor/front-end "DrScheme". In
+Racket these have been renamed "racket" and "DrRacket",
+respectively.
+
+* In your web browser:
+
+ There is a (slow, bare-bones) version of Scheme available for online use at <http://tryscheme.sourceforge.net/>.
+
+
+* **To install in Windows**
+
+ Go to <http://racket-lang.org/download/>. Download and install the "Windows x86" version.
+
+* **To install on Mac without MacPorts**
+
+ Go to <http://racket-lang.org/download/>. Download and install the option for your system, most likely "Macintosh
+ OS X (Intel)"
+
+* **To install on Mac with MacPorts**
+
+ You can install a command-line version of
+ PLT Scheme (dating from early 2009) by opening a Terminal
+ and typing:
-We haven't tested these instructions ourselves, and they're not explicit step-by-step instructions in any case. If you encounter troubles, please email to let us know so that we can amend the instructions to help others. If you figure out how to fix the problem youself (and please do), please also write with suggestions how we can change these instructions to make the process easier and more straightforward for others.
+ sudo port install mzscheme
+ If you want the GUI components, I think you'll need to use the
+ "Mac/without MacPorts" installation options above.
-Getting Scheme
-==============
+ I recommend also typing:
-Scheme is one of the two major dialects of Lisp. It's more clean and minimalistic than the other dialect, and is what's mostly used in academic circles.
+ sudo port install rlwrap
-Scheme itself has umpteen different "implementations", which share a large common base, but differ slightly in what commands you use to print, inteact with the filesystem, tell the compiler to include one source file inside another, and so on. One major implementation used to be called PLT Scheme, and this is what we recommend you use. (If you're already using or comfortable with another Scheme implementation, though, there's no compelling reason to switch.)
+ then if you ever use the command-line program `mzscheme` (or `racket`), you should start it by typing `rlwrap mzscheme`. This gives
+ you a nice history of the commands you've already typed, which you can scroll up and down in with your
+ keyboard arrows.
-We say this "used to be called" PLT Scheme, because they just changed their name to "Racket." Not "Racket Scheme," just "Racket." Since the name change is so recent, you're likely to run across both sets of names.
+* **To install on Linux**
-PLT Scheme had three salient components: the command-line version "mzscheme", a GUI extension "MrEd", and a teaching-friendly editor/front-end "DrScheme".
-In Racket these have been renamed "racket", "gracket", and "DrRacket", respectively.
+ Use your packaging system, for example, open a Terminal and
+ type:
- Windows: Go to:
- <http://racket-lang.org/download/>
- Download and install the "Windows x86" version.
+ sudo apt-get install plt-scheme
- Mac/without MacPorts: Go to:
- <http://racket-lang.org/download/>
- Download and install the option for your system, most likely "Macintosh
- OS X (Intel)"
+ It's very likely that your packaging system has some version of
+ PLT Scheme (or Racket) available, so look for it. However, if you can't find it you
+ can also install a pre-packaged binary from the Racket website at <http://racket-lang.org/download/>.
+ Choose the option for your version of Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, and two
+ varieties of Fedora are available).
- Mac/with MacPorts: You can install a command-line version of
- PLT Scheme (dating from early 2009) by opening a Terminal
- and typing:
- sudo port install mzscheme
- If you want the GUI components, I think you'll need to use the
- "Mac/without MacPorts" installation options above.
+ As above, I recommend you also type:
- Linux users:
- Use your packaging system, for example, open a Terminal and
- type:
- sudo apt-get install plt-scheme
+ sudo apt-get rlwrap
- It's very likely that your packaging system has some version of
- PLT Scheme available, so look for it. However, if you can't find it you
- can also install a pre-packaged binary from the Racket website:
- http://racket-lang.org/download/
- Choose the option for your version of Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, and two
- varieties of Fedora are available)
+ then if you ever use the command-line program `mzscheme` (or `racket`), you should start it by typing `rlwrap mzscheme`. This gives
+ you a nice history of the commands you've already typed, which you can scroll up and down in with your
+ keyboard arrows.
-Getting OCaml
-=============
+## Getting OCaml ##
-Caml is one of the two major dialects of ML. The other dialect is SML and has several implementations. Caml has only one active implementation, OCaml, developed by the INRIA academic group in France.
+**Caml** is one of two major dialects of *ML*, which is another large family of
+programming languages. The other dialect is called "SML" and has several
+implementations. But Caml has only one active implementation, OCaml or
+Objective Caml, developed by the INRIA academic group in France.
It's helpful if in addition to OCaml you also install the Findlib add-on.
This will make it easier to install additional add-ons further down the road.
However, if you're not able to get that working, don't worry about it much.
- Windows:
- Go to:
- <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>
- You can probably download and install the
- "Self installer for the port based on the MinGW toolchain"
- even if you don't know what MinGW or Cygwin are.
- Some features of this require Cygwin, but it looks like
- it should mostly work even for users without Cygwin.
- At the time of this writing, only an installer for the previous
- version of OCaml (3.11.0, from January 2010) is available.
-
- To install the Findlib add-on, you must have the
- Cygwin system installed. We assume few of you do,
- so we're not going to try to explain how to do this.
- If you want to figure it out yourself, go to the
- Findlib website:
- <http://projects.camlcity.org/projects/findlib.html>
-
- Mac/without MacPorts:
- To install OCaml 3.12 (just released the summer), go to:
- <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>
- and download and install the "Binary distribution for Mac OS X"
-
- To install the Findlib add-on, you'll need the Xcode development tools
- to compile it yourself. Once you get that far, it's probably easiest
- for you to install MacPorts and just install things using the MacPorts
- instructions. (Use the MacPorts version of OCaml, instead of installing
- the package from the caml.inria.fr website, as described above)
- However, if you do have Xcode, and want to do without MacPorts, then
- what you need to do is download Findlib from:
- <http://download.camlcity.org/download/findlib-1.2.6.tar.gz>
- Unpack the download, open a Terminal and go into the folder you just
- unpacked, and type:
- ./configure
- make package-macosx
- This will build an installer package which you should be able to
- double-click and install.
-
- Mac/with MacPorts: you can install the previous version of OCaml (3.11.2,
+* **To install in Windows**
+
+ Go to <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>.
+ You can probably download and install the
+ "Self installer for the port based on the MinGW toolchain"
+ even if you don't know what MinGW or Cygwin are.
+ Some features of this require Cygwin, but it looks like
+ it should mostly work even for users without Cygwin.
+ At the time of this writing, only an installer for the previous
+ version of OCaml (3.11.0, from January 2010) is available.
+
+ To install the Findlib add-on, you must have the
+ Cygwin system installed. We assume few of you do,
+ so we're not going to try to explain how to do this.
+ If you want to figure it out yourself, go to the
+ Findlib website at <http://projects.camlcity.org/projects/findlib.html>.
+
+* **To install on Mac without MacPorts**
+
+ To install OCaml 3.12 (just released this summer), go to
+ <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>
+ and download and install the "Binary distribution for Mac OS X"
+
+ To install the Findlib add-on, you'll need the Xcode development tools
+ to compile it yourself. Once you get that far, it's probably easiest
+ for you to install MacPorts and just install things using the MacPorts
+ instructions. (Use the MacPorts version of OCaml, instead of installing
+ the package from the caml.inria.fr website, as described above)
+ However, if you do have Xcode, and want to do without MacPorts, then
+ what you need to do is download Findlib from
+ <http://download.camlcity.org/download/findlib-1.2.6.tar.gz>.
+ Unpack the download, open a Terminal and go into the folder you just
+ unpacked, and type:
+
+ ./configure
+ make package-macosx
+
+ This will build an installer package which you should be able to
+ double-click and install.
+
+* **To install on Mac with MacPorts**
+
+ You can install the previous version of OCaml (3.11.2,
from January 2010), together with the Findlib add-on, by opening a Terminal
and typing:
+
sudo port install ocaml caml-findlib
- Linux: Use your packaging system, for example, open a Terminal and
- type:
- sudo apt-get install ocaml ocaml-findlib
- That will install a version of OCaml (probably 3.11.2, from January 2010)
- and the Findlib add-on.
-
- If for some reason you can't get OCaml through your
- packaging system, you can go to:
- <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>
- Pre-packaged binary installers are available for several Linux systems.
-
- If you can't get findlib through your packaging system, you'll
- need to download it from:
- <http://download.camlcity.org/download/findlib-1.2.6.tar.gz>
- and use gcc to compile it yourself. If you don't know how to
- do that, you probably don't want to attempt this.
- Here are the INSTALL notes:
- <https://godirepo.camlcity.org/svn/lib-findlib/trunk/INSTALL>
+ As with Scheme, it's helpful to also have rlwrap installed, and to start OCaml as `rlwrap ocaml`. This gives
+ you a nice history of the commands you've already typed, which you can scroll up and down in with your
+ keyboard arrows.
+
+
+* [More details about installing OCaml on Macs, if needed](http://cocan.org/getting_started_with_ocaml_on_mac_os_x)
+
+* **To install on Linux**
+
+ Use your packaging system, for example, open a Terminal and
+ type:
+
+ sudo apt-get install ocaml ocaml-findlib
+
+ That will install a version of OCaml (probably 3.11.2, from January 2010)
+ and the Findlib add-on.
+
+ If for some reason you can't get OCaml through your
+ packaging system, you can go to
+ <http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html>.
+ Pre-packaged binary installers are available for several Linux systems.
+
+ If you can't get findlib through your packaging system, you'll
+ need to download it from
+ <http://download.camlcity.org/download/findlib-1.2.6.tar.gz>.
+ and use gcc to compile it yourself. If you don't know how to
+ do that, you probably don't want to attempt this.
+ Here are the INSTALL notes:
+ <https://godirepo.camlcity.org/svn/lib-findlib/trunk/INSTALL>.
+
+ As with Scheme, it's helpful to also have rlwrap installed, and to start OCaml as `rlwrap ocaml`. This gives
+ you a nice history of the commands you've already typed, which you can scroll up and down in with your
+ keyboard arrows.