PROJECT: Building The Thing (BTT0)

OBJECTIVE

Obtain the latest stable release of Vircon32, in source code form, and build it and the associated DevTools in your development system. Collaboratively document the build process.

EDIT

You will want to go here to edit and fill in the various sections of the document:

https://lab46.g7n.org/notes/discrete/fall2023/projects/btt0

BTT0 documentation

Tasks

Obtain source of latest release of Vircon32 (emulator and DevTools)

To obtain the latest source of Vircon32 for both the emulator and DevTools, navigate to the Vircon32 homepage and on the side under software, there are links to the emulator and DevTool downloads.

Another option to get the source code of different repositories onto your pi is to clone it from the Vircon32 github page. Once on the page, click on the repository you want to clone and copy its url. On your pi terminal go to the location you want to put the repository in and clone it from github using “git clone url_of_repository”. For this project you will want the computer software repository to make the emulator and dev tools from them. The documents and console software repositories can also include helpful information.

Extract files, read instructions, install needed dependencies

After you download vircon 32 open a pi terminal and cd into your respective file location. Access and read over the “Readme” file, cd into either the DevTools or Emulator directory and run

mkdir build

There are dependencies needed for Vircon32 which are the following:

SDL2
TinyXML2
SDL2_image
OpenGL
LibPNG
OpenAL
ALUT / FreeALUT

(make sure to install the dev version!)

To download the dependencies use the command

  aptitude search [DEPENDENCY]

where [DEPENDENCY] is the specific library you're looking for Once you've found the one you want, use

  sudo apt install [DEPENDENCY]

to install each dependency you find with search

Once you have downloaded the necessary dependencies run

cmake -G '[your system] Makefiles ..

example: if you run a Linux/Pi you would use

cmake -G 'Unix Makfiles' ..

*Note “..” is the parent directory it is being told to use

Prepare and build (for system/OS)

Replicate section per system/OS you are building for

Now that you have the Vircon32 emulator and Dev-tools, its time to modify the PATH of your system so that you can use the various command line tools that they offer, such as assemble or compile, anywhere on your system. First you need to locate where they are in your system, and make sure to note down the file path.

Linux-

To save the path of your emulator and dev-tools in a Linux environment you need to use this command.

  pi@raspberry:~$ export PATH="/path-to-dev-tools:$PATH"
  pi@raspberry:~$ export PATH="/path-to-emulator:$PATH"

to see if the path was added correctly input the (echo “$PATH”) command, at this point your path should look something like this.

 /opt/Vircon32/Emulator:/usr/loacl/Devtools:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin

These paths are temporary and will not save after you exit the terminal so its ok to mess up at this stage, you can check by opening up another terminal and checking the PATH there. After you are sure that you got the correct file path, its time to add them to your system so that they don't erase after you close the terminal.

  pi@raspberry:~$ nano ~/.bashrc

At the bottom of this file add the two commands that you used to add the file paths, and boom you can now use the command line tools from the emulator and Devtools wherever you are on your system.

If you’re having trouble locating the files, you can check the install_manifest.txt file in the build directory to see where the files are stored.

SUBMISSION

To be successful in this project, the following criteria (or their equivalent) must be met:

Project must be submit on time, by the deadline.
- Late submissions will lose 33% credit per day, with the submission window closing on the 3rd day following the deadline.
Executed programs must display in a manner similar to provided output
- output formatted, where applicable, must match that of project requirements
Processing must be correct based on input given and output requested
Output, if applicable, must be correct based on values input
Code must be nicely and consistently indented
Code must be consistently written, to strive for readability from having a consistent style throughout
Code must be commented
- Any “to be implemented” comments MUST be removed
  - these “to be implemented” comments, if still present at evaluation time, will result in points being deducted.
  - Sufficient comments explaining the point of provided logic MUST be present
No global variables (without instructor approval), no goto statements, no calling of main()!
Track/version the source code in your lab46 semester repository
Submit a copy of your source code to me using the submit tool by the deadline.

Submit Tool Usage

Let's say you have completed work on the project, and are ready to submit, you would do the following:

lab46:~/src/SEMESTER/DESIG/PROJECT$ submit DESIG PROJECT file1 file2 file3 ... fileN

You should get some sort of confirmation indicating successful submission if all went according to plan. If not, check for typos and or locational mismatches.

RUBRIC

I'll be evaluating the project based on the following criteria:

13:btt0:final tally of results (13/13)
*:btt0:submitted demo code for project by duedate [4/4]
*:btt0:contributed to project documentation [4/4]
*:btt0:committed project related changes to semester repo [5/5]

Pertaining to the collaborative authoring of project documentation

each class member is to participate in the contribution of relevant information and formatting of the documentation
- minimal member contributions consist of:
  - near the class average edits (a value of at least four productive edits)
  - near the average class content change average (a value of at least 128 bytes (absolute value of data content change))
  - near the class content contribution average (a value of at least 1kiB)
  - no zero-sum commits (adding in one commit then later removing in its entirety for the sake of satisfying edit requirements)
- adding and formatting data in an organized fashion, aiming to create an informative and readable document that anyone in the class can reference
- content contributions will be factored into a documentation coefficient, a value multiplied against your actual project submission to influence the end result:
  - no contributions, co-efficient is 0.50
  - less than minimum contributions is 0.75
  - met minimum contribution threshold is 1.00

Additionally

Solutions not abiding by spirit of project will be subject to a 50% overall deduction
Solutions not utilizing descriptive why and how comments will be subject to a 25% overall deduction
Solutions not utilizing indentation to promote scope and clarity or otherwise maintaining consistency in code style and presentation will be subject to a 25% overall deduction
Solutions not organized and easy to read (assume a terminal at least 90 characters wide, 40 characters tall) are subject to a 25% overall deduction

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