MLCLLib

MLCLLib is a discombobulated collection of Java code, thought be of sufficient quality and usefulness that it can be re-used across a number of the MLCL Labs projects.

Distribution

The software is primarily distributed in source-code form. Binaries may be available sporadically, and on request.

The source code can be acquired from the github repository, click the Downloads button, and select a version to download an archive of the source code.

API javadocs can be browsed here: http://mlcl.github.com/MLCLLib/apidocs/

Acquire the library as a Maven Dependancy

To use this library as part of a Maven managed project, simply add the following snipped to the dependencies section of your pom.xml.

<dependency>
   	<groupId>uk.ac.susx.mlcl</groupId>
	<artifactId>mlcl-lib</artifactId>
	<version>0.2.1</version>
	<type>jar</type>
</dependency>

Well almost simple... At time of writing the library is not available on the Maven central repository, so you will also need to add our repositories to your pom.xml:

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>mlcl-repository</id>
        <name>MLCL Group Public Repository</name>
        <url>http://kungf.eu:8081/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
        <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Dependencies

The project requires Java 6 installed on the system. The software is compiled using an Apache Maven script. It should have no compile or runtime dependancies on third party libraries, however unit testing requires JUnit 4.

Building

Compiling the software from a source distribution

Building from the command line

To compile the software from the command line, run:

$ mvn -P release install -Dgpg.skip=true

This will compile the source code, and create a new directory /target/ containing the project jar file, and various assemblies. (See Build Output bellow). It will also install the artefacts to your local Maven repository.

Building as a Netbeans project.

This section details how to build the project from with Netbeans 7. First acquire the source code as described above.

1. Start Netbeans and select "File -> Open Project" from the menu bar.

2. Browse the directory to which you downloaded mlcl-lib. Select the directory and click "Open Project".

3. From the Run menu select "Clean and Build Main Project".

This will compile the source code, and create a new directory /target/ containing the project jar file, and various assemblies. (See Build Output bellow)

Build Output:

All build output is stored in the newly created directory /target/. It will contain a number of sub-directories along with containing the compiled jar archive, and various assemblies:

...
mlcl-lib-<version>.jar
mlcl-lib-<version>-sources.jar
mlcl-lib-<version>-javadoc.jar
mlcl-lib-<version>-bin.zip
mlcl-lib-<version>-src.zip
...

The mlcl-lib-<version>.jar file is all you really need to use the library. The -sources.jar and -javadoc.jar can be used by most IDEs to assist developers, but don't worry about them if you don't know how. The -bin.zip and -src.zip are binary and source distributions respectively. The binary distribution contains the jar archives, along with a copy of the README. The source distribution should be an exact replica of the distribution you just downloaded. In addition to the .zip distribution artefacts, there will be .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 files, which contain the same data but use different compression algorithms.

Attribution

This project is partially supported by a TSB (Technology Strategy Board) grant reference GCL-100934, and by the EPSRC Doctoral Training Account Scheme.

Special thanks to all members of the Machine Learning and Computational Linguistics Lab, School of Informatics, University of Sussex, for all the helpful input.

Contributing

To contributed to the project you should fork the git repository. First click the "Fork" button on GitHub. Then open a console to run the following:

$ git clone git@github.com:[your-user-name]/MLCLLib.git
$ cd MLCLLib
$ git remote add upsteam git@github.com:MLCL/MLCLLib.git
$ git fetch upstream

If you have changes to contribute back to the main project, push changes to your fork of the repository, then send us a pull request by clicking the "Pull Request" button on MLCL fork of the repository.

Licence

This software is distributed under the 3-clause BSD Licence.