Instructions for running the CMPS160 assignments from your home PC using Visual C++ 6.0 under Windows:

In most cases, you only need the binary downloads to run things, but the source downloads usually include example programs that are very useful for educational purposes.

You'll eventually need to know the file paths to where the .h and .lib files are located. I recommend creating a graphics subdirectory (e.g., C:\graphics) for these to keep things tidy.

Thanks to Jose Renteria for the info on setting up Visual C++ 6.0.

You'll need 4 things:

1. Xforms (GUI builder: http://world.std.com/~xforms/)

get the W32 version from ftp://ncmir.ucsd.edu/pub/xforms/NT/W32/. There are several windows ports of xforms, but this is the one to use with using Visual C++.

Download either the bxform-088.tgz (same as a tar.gz file) or the bxform-0881.zip file.

Open the ftp://ncmir.ucsd.edu/pub/xforms/NT/W32/Xlib folder and download minx11.zip.

Download and unpack all the archives to your C:\graphics directory.

Copy the forms.dll file to a directory in the system's path (e.g. C:\WINNT\system32).

Note that you'll be running the fdesign.exe in bxforms881-w32/DESIGN (not the one in minx11/usr/bin).

2. X server (weirdx: http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx)

Xforms requires an X server in order to display properly.  I recommend getting the weirdx X server, as it's free. In this instance, I recommend downloading the source rather than the binary version, because the source includes batch files for running weirdx and also includes the configuration file for it.
• Go to http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx/ and scroll down the page until you come to the download section.
• Click on either weirdx-1.0.31.tar.gz or weirdx-1.0.31.zip.
• You will be redirected to a SourceForge web page where you can start the actual download.
• Click on one of the icons in the Download column (last one on the right) and save the file to your machine.
• Unpack the contents to your C:\graphics directory.
Weirdx requires java to be installed on your machine.  If you don't already have it, go to http://java.sun.com/getjava/download.html.  Follow the instructions for installation.
Configuring weirdx:
• set DISPLAY env var to 127.0.0.1:2.0 (Under Win95 or 98 add this to your autoexec.bat: set DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:2.0. Under Win 2000 (& NT?), right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Select the advanced tab, and click on the environment variables button. Enter DISPLAY as the name of the variable, and 127.0.0.1:2.0 as its value.
• Test by running double clicking on the weirdx-Java2.bat to start weirdx. Now run oclock.exe from the xforms xlib download (/usr/local/bin).  You should see a clock appear in the weirdx window.
Once you've verified that weirdx is working properly, close weirdx and oclock and modify the config file (misc/config/props) to enable it to run as a rootless window manager (i.e., x apps appear in their own windows rather than in the weirdx window).
• Remove the comment (#) from in front of the weirdx.windowmode=RootlessWM line.
• Add a '#' to the beginning of the previously enabled window mode weirdx.windowmode=InBrowser
Test that weirdx is running as a rootless window manager: Now when you start weirdx, you won't see a gray window for X programs to run in.  Instead, when weirdx is running and you run an application like oclock.exe, oclock.exe will appear in its own window.  If this isn't the case, you probably modified the wrong props file (there are two in the distribution).  Make sure you're working on the one in misc/config.

3. Graphics libraries (OpenGL, Glut)

OpenGL: If you're using Visual C++ 6.0, OpenGL comes with it, so there's nothing to worry about.

Glut: A windows port of glut can be obtained from Nate Robins (www.cs.utah.edu/~narobins/glut.html ).

Download and unpack it to your C:\graphics directory.

4) A C or C++ compiler (Visual C++ 6.0)

Configuring Visual C++ 6.0

• Add the include directories for Xforms and Glut to the preferences: From the visual c++ menubar click on Tools->Options then  click on the Directories tab and  select the "Include files" in the"Show directories for" field add the xforms and glut directories you created earlier.
• Add the lib directories for Xforms and Glut to the preferences: From the same options panel, select the "Library files" in the "Show directories for" field add the xforms and glut lib directories you created  earlier.
• IMPORTANT STEP FOR EACH NEW PROJECT: add the needed .lib files:

A)Click Project->Settings
B)click the link tab
C)add forms.lib glut32.lib opengl32.lib to the "Object/library modules" and hit OK

Test your setup by creating a new project:

• Click on the Projects tab (should go there automatically) and select win32 Console Application (unless you want to program Windows code).
• Then  give the Project a name and choose "an empty project"
• Click on the fileView tab in the workspace browser and expand the files selection.
• Click Project->Add to Project (at this point click  Files to add a previously created file to the project OR  click New to make a new file (which we won't do for this example).

Build and Execute

NOTE: if you get errors like...
  Linking...
  MSVCRTD.lib(MSVCRTD.dll) : error LNK2005: _tolower already defined in
  LIBCD.lib(tolower.obj)
Then
A)Click Project->Settings
B)click the C/C++ tab
C)add /MD to the end of "ProjectOptions" and hit OK
D)Build and Execute

AND THAT SHOULD BE IT...

Good luck!
 
 

Alternative setups

Some general advice for alternative setups is to build the examples that come with the packages.  If the examples aren't working, it's highly unlikely that the assignments will.
 

FLTK instead of XForms

Cygwin/XFree86

If you don't have access to the OpenGL implementation that comes with Visual C++ 6.0, you can try Mesa, a free OpenGLimplementation (www.mesa3d.org). I believe that cygwin also comes with OpenGL (Mesa?).