Some of the software available on CVSSP machines

Contents

• Programming:
  • Software libraries
  • Programming languages
  • Programming support - debuggers, revision control etc.
  • Maths and stats support
• Document preparation and viewing:
  • Text editors
  • Document preparation with LaTeX
  • Spelling checkers
  • HTML
  • Drawing and graphics
  • Document viewing
  • Word processors
  • Printers
• Packages / tools:
  • Imaging / vision / graphics / signal processing packages
  • Post-production tools
  • Audio and speech utilities
  • Gnu software (but Gnu make is separate)
  • Secure remote login
  • PC / Linux
  • PC / Windows
  • Miscellaneous

See also the School software and FAQ pages, and Joe's wiki.

Where links are not provided to a topic, refer to the relevant man page.

Software libraries

• Software libraries developed within CVSSP, including:
  • RAVL - a versatile C++ library, including support for image and audio processing and pattern recognition; also available as a public-domain package. RAVL is definitely the CVSSP library of choice as it is being actively supported. Uses QMake for compiling.
  • Old stuff:
    • AMMA C++ library (although other languages creep in a bit). Still usable, but no more development on AMMA is being done. However it has some functionality not yet ported to RAVL. In theory you can ask the Software Manager to add this functionality into RAVL (or even do it yourself).
    • Contents of GAMA C library (where documentation is available), and source tree. An even older library than AMMA.
    • Other references to C libraries that didn't quite make it into RAVL or AMMA.
• Other C libraries:
  • OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) is a C++ library mainly aimed at real time computer vision.
  • GNU Scientific Library - a library of useful mathematical functions and algorithms.
  • Numerical Recipes in C, another library of useful mathematical functions and algorithms. Apparently not as reliable as the GNU Scientific Library, and has a much more restrictive licence.
• Other C++ libraries:
  • wxWindows is a toolkit for platform-independent GUI programming in C++. It consists of several class libraries and tools.
  • LEDA, a Library of Efficient Data types and Algorithms, with postscript manual.
  • libg++ - the Gnu C++ library. Haven't found a reliable single complete source of documentation. Try:
    • info pages
    • occasionally more complete info pages are available via emacs info
    • i/o streams pages
• Fortran libraries:
  • PGPLOT, 2D and 3D graphics; see also setup instructions.
  • NAG - Numerical algorithms library.
• How to contribute packages and libraries - see the Software Manager:
  • You can contribute your C++ code to the RAVL C++ library.
  • Packages from elsewhere can be installed separately.

Programming support

• Eclipse integrated development environment
• Tools for automating the compilation process:
  • QMake , originally devised for maintaining the RAVL C++ library, but which can be used for compiling programs in any language. Automatically locates file dependencies. Very simple to use.
  • make - the "standard" Unix utility for building software. The Gnu version (highly recommended) is confusingly called "vssp-make", supported on all CVSSP platforms. Proprietary versions vary considerably.
• Debugging aids:
  • Debuggers:
    • The first one to try is ddd, a GUI-based interface to the Gnu command-line debugger gdb. RAVL users: make sure you have compiled with one of the debug options (see qm help).
    • There is also the older interface, xxgdb. Help is available for gdb, by typing "help" either in the xxgdb window, or at the gdb prompt.
  • valgrind - a shareware tool for finding various memory problems, such as uninitialised memory etc. You don't have to relink your code to use it.
• Source control methods, to maintain a history of different versions of source code during software development (in decreasing order of preference):
  • Subversion (SVN) , CVSSP SVN repository (only accessible if you add the specific svn project) and FEPS repository
  • GIT
  • CVS (originally here), + pdf version
• Command line programming hints
• FAQs on system programming issues

Maths and stats support

• xmaple - an algebraic manipulation package. Documentation only available within xmaple. See Jonathan Deane for a demo.
• NAG - Numerical algorithms library.
• Matlab - Interactive maths / signal processing / image processing package.
• R - comprehensive statistics package. Type "R" to start it.

Text editors

All of the following editors do syntax highlighting.

• xemacs, offering an integrated environment for coding and writing Latex documents. Fully customisable. Completely unlike anything you will have seen under M$ Windows.
  • local info
  • user manual
  • home page
  • saving your xemacs setup
  • Ravl / Qmake mode for use with CVSSP C++ RAVL library
• emacs - very similar to xemacs, but not quite the same - they both exist because of a clash of authors' egos.
• kate
• kile: good support for Latex
• gedit
• vi - unsophisticated, but available on just about any Unix system ever devised; also enhanced version vim.

Drawing and graphics

• xfig is the most widely-used Unix drawing package.

  To include text within an xfig drawing, use latex2eps to include anything other than the most simple text.

• grace (executable is xmgrace, formerly xmgr) is a graph-plotting program (use help within xmgrace if link is broken).

Document viewing and printing

pdf:

• These tools have the nice feature that it is simple to refresh the display - very handy if you are writing a document with pdflatex:
  • kpdf -refreshes automatically
  • evince - refreshes by pressing <ctrl>r
  • xpdf - refreshes by pressing r
  Also gv, ggv. But we have had issues printing pdf from all of these except evince.
• acroread: slow; difficult to refresh display; printing reliable if you set enough options. (See Acrobat)

N.B.: If the display of documents generated from LaTeX is not too good, see here.

To convert files to PDF format:

• From PostScript: ps2pdf - see also man page, and eps2pdf - for creating pdfs to include in other documents
• There is also dvipdfm, which converts straight from dvi format to pdf
• pdf2ps: see man page.
• pdflatex will convert your LaTeX file straight to pdf, and is a good way tor create presentations.
• Distiller: available on selected departmental machines only, e.g. machine "staff" (which is available to p/gs as well).

Postscript documents:

If you would like to view or manipulate PostScript files before printing them, see man pages (missing on some machines) on:

• gv - ghostview - (also maybe mgv, ggv?) - prints fine when printing postscript
• gs - ghostscript - the engine used by ghostview, but in practice handles a wider range of PostScript files, especially those troublesome ones generated by Microsoft s/w. Extremely versatile, but cryptic to use.

Postscript and pdf manipulation

• mpage, psnup - puts several PostScript or ASCII pages on a sheet etc.; includes various double-sided options. E.g. either of these commands prints 2 pages from file1.ps per side, suitable for binding along long side :

      mpage -2tm0 file1.ps > file2.ps
  

      psnup -2 file1.ps > file2.ps
  

• pstops - shuffles pages in a PostScript file; resizes, rotates etc.
• a2ps - creates PostScript files from ASCII ones.
• ps2ascii - & vice versa.

To merge several Postsript docs into a single one (on stdout), use this alias:

 alias pscat "gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=- -q \!* -c quit"

To enlarge text on the printed page (e.g. when you have tiny text, huge margins), try something like:

psnup -1 -s1.4 -pa4 -m-7cm ICVS07.ps | gv -

Hint: to discover a useful selection of postscrip-related commands, type ps followed by control-d.

dvi:

LaTeX files can be viewed in dvi format using xdvi. xdvi is quite good for presentations.

Word processing packages

• OpenOffice - platform-independent alternative to Microsoft Office that can read and write M$-Office-compatible files
• AbiWord - another Word alternative
• Word itself is also available under M$ Windows

Miscellaneous tools / packages

• mtools - a package for MS-DOS compatible floppy disk I/O on CVSSP machines.