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Update README.md #499

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Update README.md
Dec 16, 2013
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A few formatting changes to README.
rhyolight Dec 16, 2013
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Merge pull request #2 from rhyolight/patch-2
Dec 16, 2013
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66 changes: 38 additions & 28 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -37,62 +37,72 @@ Currently supported platforms:
Dependencies:
* Python (2.6-2.7) (with development headers)
* GCC (4.6-4.8), or Clang
* Make
* Make or any IDE supported by CMake (Visual Studio, Eclipse, XCode, KDevelop, etc)

The dependencies are included in platform-specific repositories for convenience:

* [nupic-linux64](https://github.com/numenta/nupic-linux64) for 64-bit Linux systems
* [nupic-darwin64](https://github.com/numenta/nupic-darwin64) for 64-bit OS X systems

Add the following to your .bashrc file. Change the paths as needed.

# Installation path
export NTA=$HOME/nta/eng
# Target source/repo path. Defaults to $PWD
export NUPIC=/path/to/repo
# Convenience variable for temporary build files
export BUILDDIR=/tmp/ntabuild
# Number of jobs to run in parallel (optional)
export MK_JOBS=3

# Set up the rest of the necessary env variables. Must be done after
# setting $NTA.
source $NUPIC/env.sh

Complete set of python requirements are documented in [requirements.txt](/external/common/requirements.txt),
compatible with [pip](http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/cookbook.html#requirements-files):

pip install -r external/common/requirements.txt

Build and install NuPIC:
## Build and test NuPIC:

### Using command line

Generate build files:

mkdir (source)/build
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Can we explicitly defined what (source) means here? Or maybe we can add a line above that specifies that all commands are being run from the nupic checkout directory, and assume that's where we are. Then we don't even have to use a reference to the source code dir and make all the commands relative.

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You're right Matt, (source) [or maybe (source dir)] is the nupic checkout directory itself (ex: /Volumes/DavidRagazzi/Desktop/nupic-master), not a literal value. I'm avoiding use env variables because this avoid a newbie have to read CMakeLists or shell scripts to find definitions. Your idea is good, we could add a line saying that (source dir) is the current location where user downloaded the repository.

PS: You could choose other name to (source) such as (source dir), (repo dir), (source folder), etc, and other symbols to embraces it ('[', '{', etc). (source) is the first name that come in my mind because it is extremely simple.. hehe Maybe "source dir" is better, "source" is a bit generic.

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@Davidragazzi Are you suggesting they create a build directory inside the source repository? Currently we don't recommend that. Could it be (source)/../build?

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What do you think about keeping the existing $NUPIC instead of the (source)? My concern is: current users are used to it, and all existing documentation (mails, wiki,..) is refering to it. Also $XX makes sense from the shell point of view, while (source) does not. Just my 2c.

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I understand your concern.

But if we continue to use env variables, we have 2 problems:

  • Portability: We remain dependent of shell, which is not portable. To say truth, I really dont like Windows, but I recognise that most systems are based on it (unfortunately the curse of 90% of market share remains true), in addition to some developers love Visual Studio that works only on it.
  • Complexity not so useful: We will have to create a shell file setting variables only for 4 or 5 shell commands. CMake creates env variables but only for runtime purpose, i.e. python files know where are swig modules and the python path.

BUT...........
we could simply add more 1 line such as:
export NUPIC=path/to/source

This way we would have:
export NUPIC = /path/to/source
mkdir $NUPIC/build_system
cd ($NUPIC/build_system
cmake $NUPIC

However, if we want Windows in a soon future, we would have port these same instructions to:
set NUPIC /path/to/source
mkdir %NUPIC%/build_system
cd (%NUPIC%/build_system
cmake %NUPIC%

In my opinion, this would increase complexity. I really dont know if the price is fair.. :-(

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no, I just meant to use the term "$NUPIC" (which we are used to) instead of "(source)" in the readme.

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ah.. ok..

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Update:
$NUPIC and $NTA will remain, but they will be created by CMake, not shell scripts. After creation, users will can change $NTA and reference to where they want.

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Just to be clear... if I don't have cmake installed, will make work instead? Then $NUPIC and $NTA will get created in a make file?

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if I don't have cmake installed, will make work instead? Then $NUPIC and $NTA will get created in a make file?

Actually $NUPIC and $NTA are created from own CMake script. There's a CMake command called "execute_process()" which we can call any shell command without need create .sh files for this purpose (because this I insisted in remove shell scripts as they are not portable [even for UNIX-like OS]).

Note that CMake doesnt build anything, it simply generates (nicely) rules scripts for the build software that you choose (not matter if Make, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc). So the repository wont have any Makefile or Configure.ac (for our enjoy!), but they will be generated from CMake script ONLY IF the user want generate them from command line (Make is the default generator when CMake is called from shell, but one also can choose Ninja as build tool which builds faster).

So CMake is bounden but Make is optional.

I'm not a Travis expert, but I believe that Travis script should call first CMake command for generating the Make (or Ninja) files and then build the project from these generated scripts

Update:

A simple Travis script that I adapted from internet (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13051880/is-there-an-example-project-in-c-that-uses-opencv-and-travis-ci):

env:
....global:
........- NUPIC=$TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/source
........- NTA=$TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/release

...

install:
....- if [ $PY_VERSION != "2.6" ]; then (cd nupic-linux64/ && mkdir -p lib/python${PY_VERSION}/site-packages && make > /dev/null) fi
....# Workaround for multiprocessing.Queue SemLock error from run_opf_bechmarks_test.
....# See: travis-ci/travis-cookbooks#155
....- "sudo rm -rf /dev/shm && sudo ln -s /run/shm /dev/shm"
....- pip install -q -r $NUPIC/external/common/requirements.txt
....- mkdir $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/build_system
....- cd $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/build_system
....- cmake $NUPIC
....- make

Note that this line:
....- "$NUPIC/build.sh"

was replaced by this:
....- mkdir $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/build_system
....- cd $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR/build_system
....- cmake $NUPIC
....- make

Assuming that $TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR is the repository root folder (right?), it's just replace these texts with those correspondent on current Travis script.

cd (source)/build
ccmake ../(source)
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wouldn't a simple cmake be a better first choice for the "configure"? The ccmake looks like some "visual" addition to cmake, and it was asking me some stuff and I even didn't know how to make it just-run-it.

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You are right. My bad, the correct is cmake, not ccmake.


Build:

cd (source)/build
make

Run the C++ tests:

cd (source)/bin
htmtest
testeverything

### Using graphical interface

$NUPIC/build.sh
Generate the IDE solution:

NuPIC should now be installed in $NTA!
* Open CMake executable.
* Specify the source folder.
* Specify the build folder, ie where IDE solution will be created (ex: /(source)/build).
* Click 'Generate'.
* Choose the IDE that interest you (remember that IDE choice is limited to your OS, ie Visual Studio is available only on CMake for Windows).

## Try it out!
Build:

### Tests
* Open 'Nupic.*proj' solution file located on build folder.
* Run 'ALL_BUILD' project from your IDE.

Run the C++ tests:

$NTA/bin/htmtest
$NTA/bin/testeverything
* Run 'HtmTest' and 'TestEverything' projects from your IDE (check 'output' panel to see the results).

Run the Python unit tests:
### Run the Python unit tests:

cd $NTA
./bin/run_tests.sh
cd (source)/bin
run_tests.sh

### Examples

You can run the examples using the OpfRunExperiment OPF client:

python $NUPIC/examples/opf/bin/OpfRunExperiment.py $NUPIC/examples/opf/experiments/multistep/hotgym/
python (source)/examples/opf/bin/OpfRunExperiment.py $NUPIC/examples/opf/experiments/multistep/hotgym/

There are also some sample OPF clients. You can modify these to run your own
data sets. One example is the hotgym prediction client:

python $NUPIC/examples/opf/clients/hotgym/hotgym.py
python (source)/examples/opf/clients/hotgym/hotgym.py

Also check out other uses of the CLA on the [Getting Started](https://github.com/numenta/nupic/wiki/Getting-Started#next-steps) wiki page.