Copyright (c) CNRS/LAAS 1996-2006

GDHE is a tool for 3D visualisation of robotics applications
developped at CNRS/LAAS. It is based on Tcl/Tk and OpenGL. 
GDHE provides a simple way to describe objects in terms of Tcl
procedures and variables. 

GDHE acts as a server that handle request from client in order to make
changes to the displayed scene. 

PREREQUISITES
-------------

GDHE needs the following tools installed on the system before you can
compile it:

- Tcl/Tk 8.6 (<http://tcl.tk/>).
- OpenGL or Mesa3D (<http://www.mesa3d.org/>) and GLU. 
- The GNU make utility, version 3.79 or later. GDHE Makefiles use some
  GNU make extensions and thus won't work with other make implementations. 
  Note the GNU make is the standard make on most Linux systems.
  (<http://www.gnu.org/software/make/make.html>).
- mkdep, the dependencies generator from CNRS/LAAS. Mkdep has many
  feature that other dependencies generators miss. 
  (<http://softs.laas.fr/openrobots/tools/mkdep.php>). 

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
-------------------

GDHE is known to run on the following platforms:

- SPARC Solaris with Sun's OpenGL (tested on Solaris 2.5.1 through 
  Solaris 10),
- ix86 Linux with XFree86 4.x or X.Org 6.7 and later.
- NetBSD 1.6 and later with XFree86 4.x,
- OpenBSD 3.2 and later with XFree86 4.x. 

GETTING GDHE
------------

The latest GDHE version is available for download from:
<http://softs.laas.fr/openrobots/tools/gdhe.php>. 

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
-------------------------

GDHE uses GNU configure to handle most of the system dependancies
configuration. So you can build and install it with the following
commands: 

	./configure [options]
	make
	make install

Use './configure --help' to find out all the available configure
options. On most systems, '--with-tcl=DIR' and --with-tk=DIR will be
required to specify where to find tclConfig.sh (resp. tkConfig.h). 

The --prefix option (default: /usr/local) defines the base directory
of the installation. 
Note that, at least on Solaris, you should use the same compiler as
for building Tcl/Tk, since GDHE uses the configuration data from
tclConfig.sh to find out the options to build shared libs on a given
system. 

  Building on multiple architectures
  ----------------------------------

To build gdhe on multiple architectures, the --exec-prefix option can
be specified to define an architecture-specific prefix for
architecture-dependant binaries.

In this case, it is highly recommended to use a separated build
directory for each architecture. 

  Examples
  --------

To build gdhe in /usr/local/robots on a Linux system:

   ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/robots

To build gdhe in /usr/local/robots, on a Linux system, putting
architecture dependent files in /usr/local/robots/i386-linux: 

   ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/robots \
     --exec-prefix=/usr/local/robots/i386-linux

To build gdhe in /usr/local/robots, on a Solaris system, assuming Tcl
and Tk are installed in /usr/local/tcl-8.4, and jpeg libs installed in
/usr/local:

   ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/robots \
     --with-tcl=/usr/local/tcl-8.4/lib \
     --with-jpeg=/usr/local

RUNNING GDHE
------------

Gdhe can be started directly, using the 'gdhe' command, or loaded as a
module in an existing wish interpreter. 

Some examples of use of GDHE are provided in the 'examples' sub-directory. 

  Reporting Problems / Getting Help
  ---------------------------------

A mailing list has been created for GDHE users. Please subscribe to
this list if you want to send problem reports or support requests.
To subscribe, go to <http://sympa.laas.fr/wws/gdhe/>. 

-- 
$LAAS$
