Running Flat

In order to run Flat, include the following lines in your .bashrc file:

export PATH=/u/robot/flat-root/flat4:${PATH}
export FLAT_CODE = ...
alias runflat='cd $FLAT_CODE ; flat environmentFile -config $PWD/configFile.flat 
    -world $PWD/my.world &'

The first line includes the Flat's code path in your $PATH environment variable. Create a directory to store your code and set $FLAT_CODE to be the path to that directory. In the directory $FLAT_CODE you need to specify the following files: the config file (configFile.flat above) and the world file (my.world above). Finally, the environmentFile is the name of the file describing the environment used by Flat. For more information on these files please check Flat's home page.

In order to run the system, you will then: (i) start the flat display, (ii) runFlat, (iii) start the servers, (iv) start Rscheme and connect to Flat. These steps are the same as when working with the wheelchair (see Section 1.7):

1.

Start the Flat display

       $ java flat.Flat <port-number> &

The machine you run the display and <port-number> have to be the ones specified in $VULCAN/setup.scm (variables *display-host* and *display-port*).

2.

Run Flat

       $ runflat &

3.

Start the system servers

       $ startservers-flat

4.

Run the system from the emacs shell.^7.1

       $ emacs &
       In emacs, ask for a shell (meta (ESC-x) shell), and at the
       shell prompt type
       $ runsystem