Installation instructions for MOOF


The instructions which follow are intended for installation under Linux. The processes involved should be very similar for other unix-like systems. For MS-DOS and OS/2, essentially you are on your own. The instructions below will probably provide some useful tips, but you will have to adapt the makefile for the moof binary to support your favourite compiler, and some (minimal) source code editing will probably be involved, as well. Additional information for your operating system may be provided in the files README.

Bug reports/general correspondence: please e-mail to the author. I am studying at the University of Auckland, so this is definitely an unsupported part-time product, but I'll do my best to fix bugs, and I may even attempt to add new features once in a while. Essentially, this is something I did for myself that I hope will be useful to others.

Tony Garnock-Jones

(primary email address: tonyg@kcbbs.gen.nz)


Quick instructions


Full instructions

  1. Unpack the .tar.gz file into /usr/local/src.

    A directory moof/ will be created. Change to this directory.

    If you don't want to use /usr/local/{src,lib,bin} to put moof in, edit the Makefile. Don't forget to also reconfigure moof to take the changes into account.

  2. Install the libraries.

    MOOF, as a binary on its own, is very stupid. It contains a compiler and the associated bytecode interpreter, but no actual read-eval-print loop. Thus, it needs a boot file, which contains the code necessary to present a usable environment to the user.

    The code needed to do this is normally placed in /usr/local/lib/moof/startup.m and indeed, this is what the binary looks for if you don't tell it otherwise (see the configuration section).

    Create a symbolic link from /usr/local/src/moof/lib to /usr/local/lib/moof. (If you are root, you can do this automatically by typing 'make library'.)

  3. Configure the binary - /usr/local/src/moof/source/config.h

    This file contains definitions for the locations of the files needed by the moof runtime. These may be altered if you want a different file arrangement. The defaults are:

    	MOOF_LIBDIR	/usr/local/lib/moof	(no trailing '/'!)
    	MOOF_BOOTFILE	/usr/local/lib/moof/startup.m
    You can override these settings at runtime using the environment variables of the same names.

    The file also contains a number of #defines which are used to control which non-essential features are compiled into the language. Adjust these according to taste.

  4. Build MOOF itself.

    Type 'make binary' to build the binary.

    To install the binary in /usr/local/bin, create a symbolic link from /usr/local/src/moof/source/moof to /usr/local/bin/moof.

    If you are logged in as root at the time, typing 'make install' will both build the binary and install the symlink.

That's all there is to it. Sample moof code is in /usr/local/lib/moof.
Tony Garnock-Jones			tonyg@kcbbs.gen.nz
12A Dianthus Place			Phone/Fax: +64-9-479-6418
Browns Bay, Auckland
New Zealand				Comp. Sci./Biology Student