Generated: Monday, June 4, 2007, 13:04:58 Copyright © 2007 , Kurt Nørmark The local LAML software home page

LAML Installation Guide

This installation guide applies to LAML (full and slim) and for the SchemeDoc distribution.

If you are on Windows 2000 or XP you should consider the easy LAML installation on Windows. (I have not tried LAML on Windows Vista yet). In order to use it you must obey certain rules regarding directory organization of both PLT Scheme and LAML. If you prefer, or if you need to, you can also use the general installation guide, as described below.

The LAML software can be used with an arbitrary R4RS or R5RS Scheme interpreter. However, be aware that we use a few non-standard functions, which are described in the top level documentation file.

In order to enjoy the LAML software we recommend that you integrate it with the Emacs text editor. (If you are not an Emacs user, you can use LAML from a command prompt via the laml command, or from a Scheme interpreter via the laml procedure). Using this integration you can process a file f.laml via a single editor command (or a single key stroke), giving you the translated file f.html. In addition we provide a number of very helpful Emacs Lisp commands and templates.

Please notice that when you unzip the LAML zip file a laml directory is created for you. Thus, you do probably not want to make a laml directory yourself.

It is easy to setup the LAML system on Unix or a PC. After you have downloaded and unziped the LAML distribution zip file just follow these simple steps:

  1. Edit the file laml-config/configuration (relative to your new LAML directory) using your favorite text editor. Just follow the directions in the file. Please, pay careful attention to the explanations in the file. If you install SchemeDoc some symbols ( leno-emacs-support, photoshow-emacs-support, chords-emacs-support) must be associated with the value #f.

  2. Start your Scheme system in the laml-config directory via the command prompt (or a Unix Shell).

  3. Load the Scheme file laml-config.scm : 
      (load "laml-config.scm")
    By loading this file the procedure laml-config will be executed. This program checks your configuration, and it rewrites a number of files in the root of the laml directory, and in the LAML bin directory. It also provides a possibility to modify your Emacs init file ( .emacs ). If there are warnings, change the configuration file, and load laml-config.scm again. Be aware that the LAML configuration procedures uses the non-R4Rs functions file-exists?, directory-exists? and delete-file. MzScheme supports all of these. In Guile and SCM try (define directory-exists? file-exists?).

  4. If you want to activate LAML from a command prompt (shell), ensure that the bin/laml file (and bin/absolute-laml if you depend on it) is executable on Unix: chmod 755 laml. In addition, add the LAML bin directory to your path, such that the laml command can be executed directly. (On unix edit .cshrc, on a PC with win95/98 edit autoexec.bat, or on NT/Win2000 go into the environment part using the control panel).

The function laml-temp-file-path (in the file laml-fundamental.scm in the root of the LAML directory) returns a full path to a temp directory, to which LAML is assumed to have write access. You can redefine this function if you wish to use a non-default temp directory.

The configuration process inserts stuff in your Emacs init file in case the emacs-init-file property in configuration is a path to your .emacs file. The insertions are done at the end of the file. You will probably get a message from the installation process in case you need to make manual changes (for instance, if you need to delete an earlier version of the LAML stuff from you .emacs file).

If you use the time library stuff (lib/time.scm) - directly or indirectly - you should change the value of the variable time-zone-info to the appropriate value. Edit the file lib/time.scm.

After installation, restart Emacs in order to take advantage of the LAML emacs support. Perhaps you should check the .emacs file before, to make sure that everything is OK.

Give it a try!

In order to try out your LAML installation I will recommend that you take a look at the examples in the examples directory (provided with the full distribution). Try, e.g., the simple pages from examples/xhtml1.0-strict-validating/ first. Recall that when you process a file, say f.laml, LAML creates f.html , at least in the simple examples. Try processing the various files with laml extension in the example directories, and watch the results in your browser and on the corresponding html files. Use either the LAML Emacs interface (start with the menus in the LAML menu group, and learn the keyboard shortcuts from there), the laml command from the command prompt or shell, or the laml function from your Scheme interpreter to process the LAML files (see details in the main index file ). You can visit the example pages (both in HTML and LAML) from the examples column of the table in the index page of the distribution. Using the examples as patterns, the examples provided, and the ../tutorial/index.html LAML tutorial, I hope that you will be able to create your own LAML pages. Enjoy!

In the full distribution you can process all LAML examples by executing the LAML script in examples/process-all.laml.

 

 

Kurt Nørmark
normark@cs.aau.dk
http://www.cs.aau.dk/~normark/

Program Oriented Web Engineering - using LAML  

 

Generated: Monday, June 4, 2007, 13:04:58