Getting Started

Although some software is available, XLattice is still in the discussion and planning stage. The overall architecture is not completely settled, and the current interface is almost certainly very much unlike what it will eventually become. The software that exists is there for talking and thinking about.

There are basically two ways to get XLattice - and most other open source software. The first is CVS, which gives you access to last night's version of the code. The second is to download the latest release. This is more likely to work, but is less up to date; current plans are to put out incremental XLattice releases at roughly monthly intervals.

XLattice is being developed on systems running Linux and FreeBSD. If you are working under a Microsoft operating system, you may need to use some initiative to get the advice that follows to work. We will try to improve on this situation; please be patient.

The instructions that follow are suitable for downloading the Java implementation of XLattice to Linux hosts.

CVS Access

XLattice is hosted on SourceForge. On Unix systems, you can get a copy of the most recent version of an XLattice compenent by typing:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xlattice checkout module

where module represents the component name.

This will deliver the very latest version to your desktop, creating a xlattice subdirectory in the current directory if one does not already exist, with the module in a subdirectory below that.

If you are using another operating system, or have trouble with the instructions above, have a look at Sourceforge's CVS documentation; this is lucid and reasonably easy to follow.

Downloads

The alternative is downloading a release. This is very simple indeed. You should see a Download button at the top of this Web page; if you click on it, it will take you to XLattice's Sourceforge download page. The most recent releases will be listed towards the top.

XLattice is divided into a number of components. Each is released as a zip file containing any jars necessary for the build, source code, javadocs, and the jar for the release.

The util-0.1 release, for example, is packaged as util-0.1.zip. This unzips into a local ./xlattice subdirectory. xlattice/lib contains the jars, including the release, which is to be found in xlattice/lib/xlattice/util-0.1.jar.

Click on whichever release you need, and your browser will get it for you.

Once you have the tarball, put it in the directory where you want your XLattice subdirectory and type

  unzip util-0.1.zip

(replacing the actual component name and version number as appropriate) and it will be extracted for you.

These instructions are of course suitable for Linux/Unix hosts; if you are using Windows, you need to adjust appropriately.

Where's the Jar?

Either of the procedures above will give you a distribution in a subdirectory named xlattice and the jar in xlattice/lib/xlattice along with a copy of the XLattice license.

Other jars are in similarly-named subdirectories. The Ant jars, for example, are under xlattice/lib/ant.

For Developers

Those with an interest in XLattice's inner workings might be interested in getting the software using CVS. There are sometimes several file changes a day.

Once you have the software, you should go into the XLattice directory for the component and run the tests.

  cd xlattice/utl
  ./build.sh test

These should execute with no or very few errors. If you do see serious errors, it is likely that there are problems with the installation.

The most likely problems are classpath errors and missing jar files.