Computing Resources (Semester 2, 2007)

The contents of this disc are for the convenience of students who are stuck with MS-Windows at home. Free versions of editors, interpreters and compilers are included. Mostly, these are "click-to-install" files but, for some of the older software, there are a couple of configuration files. Users of GNU/Linux systems will probably have these tools already installed. Users of Mac OS-X should have them on their free software disc (if not already installed).

For MECH2700, only the ActiveState version of the Python interpreter and a couple of extensions need to be installed. This installation will provide you with the basic Python environment plus tutorial and reference documentation. All interaction with the Python interpreter can be done from the IDLE (Integrated Development) environment that may be manually added to your ActiveState Python menu. Resist the temptation to use the PythonWin IDE; it causes confusion in class.

The Python Programming Language and Extensions

• Python interpreter (http://www.python.org)
  Install ActivePython-2.5 (from http://www.activestate.com/) This comes as standard double-click-to-install file for MS-Windows. Users of MS-Windows'98 will have to install the MS Installer first.
  If you don't end up with a menu entry for IDLE, copy the file C:\Python25\Tools\scripts\idle to idle.py on your desktop.
• Next, install the numpy extension (from http://numpy.scipy.org). There are several copies of the manual in the library. There is also a free manual for the closely-related Numeric package for those who wish to read further, however, we should cover the essentials in class.
• Finally, install the matplotlib graphics extension. This provides a MATLAB-like plotting capability. Again, for those who wish to read further, there is a draft users guide.

The remaining items on this disc are not necessary for the MECH2700 course but may be useful for those who wish to explore a little further.

Word-Processor

• OpenOffice (from http://www.openoffice.org) is a complete word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation package that can import and export MS-Word documents.

Other Programming Editors

• SciTE (from http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/SciTE.html)
  A programmer's text editor. To install, copy the wscite directory (and its contents) to a convenient place and put a shortcut to the executable file SciTE.exe onto your desktop.
• emacs (from http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/)
  An all-singing-all-dancing text editor and programming environment.
  Just copy the emacs-22.1 directory (and its contents) to your root (C:\) directory and put a shortcut to C:\emacs-22.1\bin\runemacs.exe on your desktop.
  • A Python mode for Emacs.
    Copy the files to C:\emacs-22.1\site-lisp\ if they are not already there. See the Emacs Wiki on the web for more detail.
  • _emacs
    PJ's Emacs configuration file which turns on syntax colouring and activates the python mode for python files. Just copy it into your root directory (C:\).
• Programmers File Editor
  A simpler editor but without the syntax colouring, etc.

Other Programming Language Intrepreters and Compilers

• Maxima Computer Algebra System from http://maxima.sourceforge.net/
• Python Sumo edition (from http://www.enthought.com)
  For those students who feel adventurous, the Enthought distribution of Python is available. It aims to provide a more complete programming environment for scientific computation, however, we shall be doing all class work with the ActiveState Python distribution.
• Borland C compiler and debugger. (from http://community.borland.com and http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler/)
  After unpacking the main files, you need to put a couple of configuration files into the bin directory of the installed compiler. There is a README file in the main package to describe where too put these files and what they should contain. The files included here are specific to my (fairly standard) installation.
• Tcl/Tk interpreter and graphical user-interface toolkit. (http://www.tcl.tk)
  Tcl/Tk is probably of most interest to Thesis Project students.
• Octave (from http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/)
  A MATLAB work-a-like.

Other Plotting and Graphical Display Tools

• Gnuplot (from http://www.gnuplot.info/)
  A plotting package that can be used by itself or can be used from within Python. For engineering and scientific plots, it does a much better job than a spreadsheet program.
  To install, copy all of the files from the gnuplot directory to somewhere convenient (maybe C:\) and make a shortcut to wgnuplot.exe on your desktop. Further detail can be found in the README.Windows file.
  When using GnuPlot from Python, it may be convenient to copy the executable and help files to the Python install directory (C:\Python24\).
• Gnuplot-Py (from http://gnuplot-py.sourceforge.net)
  An extension to Python for the creation of plots via GnuPlot. To install (after Python and Numeric are working), copy this directory and its contents to somewhere convenient and run the setup.py script with install as the command-line option.
• Ghostscript and Ghostview (from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/) are postscript viewers.
  Ghostscript does the actual interpreting and rendering of the poostscript file while Ghostview provides a nice GUI.

Utility Software

• Archiving/Unarchiving Tools These tools may be useful for unpacking zip archives.