Installation

Requirements

  • Julia 1.10 or later
  • OS: Linux or macOS. To run SymOrb.jl on Windows, WSL is required (see Step 0 below)
  • [Optional] An OpenGL compatible GPU (for animations). All latest GPUs should work out of the box.
  • [Recommended] 8 GB of RAM memory
Warning

SymOrb uses, to interface to the GAP package symorb, the package GAP.jl that is not supported on Windows. However, you can still use SymOrb on Windows by using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). [1]

Step 0: Install and configure WSL (Windows only)

Info

A complete guide WSL and its installation can be found here.

Type the following command in the Powershell to install WSL and Ubuntu.

$ wsl --install

Then, Open a Bash shell (for instance, opening the Ubuntu app from the Start menu). Follow the instructions to set up your user account by choosing a username and password.

Finally, to enable orbits visualisation, you need to install OpenGL [2]

If you run Windows 11, it is sufficient to install mesa-utils by typing in the Bash shell:

$ sudo apt install mesa-utils

Step 1: Install Julia (all platforms)

According to the Julia official documentation, it is strongly advised to install Julia using juliaup instead of using the distribution's package manager and binaries (see here)

Open a shell and type the following command to install juliaup:

$ curl -fsSL https://install.julialang.org | sh -s -- -y

Step 2: Install SymOrb (all platforms)

Info

SymOrb.jl is not yet registered in the Julia General registry. Therefore, you need to install it directly from the GitHub repository.

In the following, it is assumed that you want to create a new project where you will use SymOrb. If you want to install SymOrb in an existing project, you can skip the first two steps.

Julia projects are simply directories that contain a Project.toml file.

Hence, first of all, create a new directory. If you are using Windows, make sure to create it in the WSL Linux file system. (The Linux file system can be accessed through File Explorer as a directory listed in the left sidebar. It is advised to create your documents in the home directory located at /home/your_username.)

Then, to generate the required Project.toml and Manifest.toml files, open a Bash shell in that directory and launch the Julia REPL by typing julia --project and pressing Enter.

To install SymOrb, you need to access the Julia package manager by typing ]. You will notice that the prompt changes to (v1.xx) pkg>. Then, type the following command and press Enter:

(v1.xx) pkg> add https://github.com/susorb/SymOrb.jl

To exit the package manager, simply press Backspace to return to the Julia REPL.

To check that SymOrb has been correctly installed, type the following command in the Julia REPL:

julia> using SymOrb

If no error message is displayed, then SymOrb has been correctly installed.

  • 1[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install]
  • 2https://gist.github.com/Mluckydwyer/8df7782b1a6a040e5d01305222149f3c