Ikaros for OS X

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Ikaros works well under OS X (and other Unix-like systems). These are the OS X specific instructions on how to build Ikaros and how to add a module to the system.

Building Ikaros

Building Ikaros is very easy. You need to perform three steps:

  1. Install XCode 2.4. A copy is distributed with every Mac. You can also get it from Apple's web site.
  2. Install jpeglib and pnglib. The simplest way to fo this is to use the installer distributed by Ethan Tira-Thompson.
  3. Double click on the project file "IKAROS 1.0.0.xcodeproj". To compile, press the "Build" button in XCode.

Possible problems

Running Ikaros

To run Ikaros you can either run it directly from XCode or use the Terminal application.

The ikaros control file can be changed by specifying a new "Argument" in the IKAROS Info window. The Info window is opened by selecting "IKAROS" under "Executables" in Groups & Files and choosing "Get Info" in the File-menu. It is best to use a reliative path to the ikc file here, for example: "../Examples/web_ui_objects.ikc", since this allows the project to be moved around.

In XCode, press the "Run" button to start Ikaros. Ikaros will run the WebUI Demo and will start up with that file and wait for a web browser to connect to port 127.0.0.1:8000. Enter this URL into FireFox or WebKit (Safari 2.0 does not support SVG). This will show a start-up page in the browser from which the different views can be selected.

At the shell prompt write the following:

> ikaros experimentfile.ikc

Here, "experimentfile.ikc" is the path to the experiment you want to run. You must set up your search path so that it includes the directory with the Ikaros binaries. This is usually the directory IKAROS.1.0.0/Bin. Command line options can also be specified here.

Note that the Ikaros binary must be placed at the correct location relative to the Source directory. If you move the binary from the Ikaros/Bin directory or set up your path so that Ikaros/Bin in in your search path, you need to change IKAROSPATH in IKAROS_System.h to point to the absolute location of the Ikaros directory.

Adding a module

While quite easy to add another module to the simulator it does involve a few steps. The idea is to create a new folder to hold the module, add the folder to the project, add a bit of documentation (you will thank yourself for doing this), and tell the system to add the module to the Ikaros.

  1. Create a new folder in UserModules. The easiest way to do this is to go to UserModules and copy the 'MyModule' folder; do not forget to rename the folder as well.
  2. Add your code as appropriate. For information on how to do this, just look in the documentation. In the 'Modules/Examples' directory, there are some simple example modules to look at as well.
  3. Edit the ikc-file to add documentation.
  4. Add the module to 'UserModules.h', i. e. add the .h file and a line with the AddClass call. Copy and rename one of the lines.

An example on how to write an IKAROS module can be found here.

Software used when creating this document

OS

Apple OS X
http://www.apple.com/
OS X 10.4.9

IDE

XCode
http://developer.apple.com/
XCode 2.4.1

Ikaros

Ikaros
http://www.ikaros-project.org/
Ikaros 1.0

External libaries

A combined installer for libjpeg and libpng is available here.

libpng.org
http://www.libpng.org/
libpng v1.2.17

Independent JPEG Group
http://www.ijg.org/
libjpeg 6b