Edit detail for WindowsSetupNoBuild revision 4 of 12

Complete Setup on Windows With No Builds Required

This page gives instructions for making a complete Axiom environment on Windows without doing any builds. It should be accurate for the currently available downloads but may become out of date. Since this is a Wiki, feel free to update this page if you have better information.

Axiom is mostly developed on UNIX systems, and its Windows support is minimal. You can, however, achieve a reasonably good working environment. No X functionality is currently provided on Windows, but you can use TeXmacs? for your GUI. It works quite well and is possibly better then the Axiom GUI in any event.

These are the caveats:

• The binary downloads do not support X, so even if you have a working X server, it will not be used. This means you will not have the built-in Axiom GUI interface, Hyperdoc, or any Drawing.
• .axiom.input is not supported on Windows.

Open Axiom

Follow these steps:

• Download open-axiom-1.3.0-windows-i386.exe from http://www.open-axiom.org/download.html and run it.
• The installer will put the installation directory in your PATH.

  Warning: There is a potential problem in that the installation includes gcc and hence that version of gcc may be found instead of the one you expect. This only applies to those who are using gcc themselves. As with any application you may have to manage your PATH or use scripts or BAT files to ensure the proper environment for your applications. If your requirements are simple, the default installation should work.

• The installer will install a shortcut, which you can use to run Open Axiom in a command shell.
• If there is a problem, the command shell may blow away before you can read any error messages.

  Fix: A standard fix for this sort of thing is to run it manually in a command shell or change the target for the short cut by adding cmd /k before the existing target. The latter will keep the command shell from going away.

• This should put you in business with the console version of Open Axiom.
• If you get compiler errors when you try to do things, the problem is likely that the current installer does not install all of the necessary files for gcc.

  Fix: You may have to install gcc yourself and insure it is in the PATH before Open Axiom. You can follow the directions for getting gcc from Cygwin on the [OpenAxiomWindows]? page. You only need to install gcc as far as this issue goes.

TeXmacs?

Follow these steps:

• Download texmacs-installer.exe from http://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/download/windows.en.html#install and run it. Do not get [TeXmacs4Win]?. It was written when TeXmacs? was not working, will make extensive modifications to your Registry, and does not have an uninstaller. The current version of TeXmacs? is later and works well.