Here are detailed instructions on how to get SnapPy working on a variety of platforms. The current version is 1.7.2 which was released on March 11, 2013.
Simply download SnapPy.dmg and copy SnapPy.app to the Applications folder. Double-click to start it, just like any other application. Works with 10.5-10.8 on Macs with Intel processors. Users of 10.4 or PPC processors should install SnapPy-1.4.dmg instead.
Simply download and run InstallSnapPy.exe.
NOTE: The Windows version of SnapPy depends on the Microsoft Distributable Visual C++ Runtime. If you receive an error message saying “This application has failed to start because MSVCR90.DLL was not found” or “This application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect” try downloading and installing vcredist_x86.exe from Microsoft.
If you are running Windows 7 and the program works except for the 3D graphics features, then you are likely missing “msvcr71.dll”.
Here are short recipes which work on many Linux systems, with both 32-bit and 64-bit kernels supported. These instructions assume you have system administrator (superuser) privileges; if not, you can install SnapPy into a virtual environment assuming the needed packages are installed. For other systems, try the one closet to yours below, and if that fails, follow the instructions for generic Unix in the next section.
Fedora: Tested on versions 8-10, 14 (Werewolf-Sulfer-Cambridge, Laughlin):
sudo yum install tkinter python-setuptools-devel
sudo python -m easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
Note: For this to work, you need to set the SELinux Enforcement mode to Permissive or lower.
Ubuntu/Debian: Tested on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), 9.10 (Karmic Koala), 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat):
sudo apt-get install python-tk python-setuptools
sudo python -m easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
Mandriva: Tested on Mandriva Linux 2010:
sudo urpmi tkinter python-setuptools
sudo python -m easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
PCLinuxOS: Not actually tested, but should work:
sudo apt-get install tkinter python-setuptools
sudo python -m easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
Once you have it installed, do:
python -m snappy.app
You may get a message about creating a ”.ipython” directory; this is normal, just hit return to continue. There should also now be a command “SnapPy” which does the same thing.
Note: You need to have Python 2.6 or 2.7 to install SnapPy 1.4.0 or newer; if instead you have Python 2.5 the above instructions will install 1.3.12 instead.
If you use a Unix other that OS X or Linux, or if the prebuilt packages don’t work for you, you’ll need to build SnapPy from source. Here are some detailed instructions.
Things you’ll need:
Python with Tkinter: You’ll need to have Python (version 2.6-2.7) and Tk (at least version 8.4) with Tkinter to connect them, including the header files. For instance, on Debian or Ubuntu, install the packages “python-tk” and “python-dev”. On Fedora, you’ll want “tkinter” and “python-devel”. In addition, you’ll need
Setuptools, which is typically packaged as “python-setuptools” (Ubuntu/Debian), “python-setuptools-devel” (Fedora), or can be installed via:
curl -O http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py
sudo python ez_setup.py
Test that Python is in order by installing PLink from source:
python -m easy_install -f http://t3m.computop.org/plink plink
plink # Should start the link editor!
Support for OpenGL (3D graphics): This is built in on OS X and the most installations of Fedora and Ubuntu. But you’ll need the MESA header files “gl.h” and “glu.h” to compile SnapPy. On Debian and Ubuntu, install “libglu1-mesa-dev”; On Fedora install “mesa-libGLU-devel”.
Cython, which you can install via:
sudo python -m easy_install cython
Sphinx, which you can install via:
sudo python -m easy_install sphinx
The gcc C++ compiler, g++, which is not installed by default on some systems, e.g. Ubuntu 11.10.
Now download the source code listed below, for instance:
curl -L -O http://snappy.computop.org/get/SnapPy.tar.gz
tar xfz SnapPy.tar.gz; cd SnapPy
There are two more dependencies that need to be dealt with:
PARI: Inside the SnapPy directory do:
bash build_pari.sh # Downloads and builds the PARI library
Togl: a 3d widget for Tk. For OS X and Linux, there are pre-built binaries of this in the snappy subdirectory, e.g. snappy/linux2-tk8.4. For Linux these are built for both 32-bit and 64-bit kernels, and should work on most systems. If they don’t, you’ll need to edit or follow “build_togl.sh” to build Togl directly into “snappy/linux2-tk*” (32-bit kernel) or “snappy/linux2-x86_64-tk*” (64-bit kernel), where “*” is the version of Tk you are using.
Finally, compile and install the SnapPy module (which will install certain other dependencies) and test:
sudo python setup.py install
sudo python setup.py build_docs install
cd /tmp; python -m snappy.app
You may get a message about creating a ”.ipython” directory; this is normal, just hit return to continue. There should also now be a command “SnapPy” which does the same thing as “python -m snappy.app”.
If you write Python programs on a Macintosh or Windows system, you may wish to install SnapPy as a Python module. After installing Python 2.6 or 2.7 and setuptools, you may install a SnapPy module from your Terminal application or Command Prompt with the command:
python -m easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
OS X notes: For best results, use a Python downloaded from Python.org and not the one provided by Apple. You need at least 10.5 and an Intel processor to use the latest versions of these precompiled modules; if you have an old system, you will get version 1.4.* instead.
All of the above instructions assume that you want to install SnapPy globally, in the main Python site-packages directory. You can also create a Python “virtual environment” and install SnapPy into it. For example, to install SnapPy into “mypy/bin” do:
#Download needed files, could also use any webbrowser here.
wget -nd https://raw.github.com/pypa/virtualenv/master/virtualenv.py
# Create a virtual environment in new directory "mypy"
python virtualenv.py --distribute mypy
# Install and run SnapPy!
mypy/bin/easy_install -U -f http://snappy.computop.org/get snappy
mypy/bin/SnapPy
SnapPy has some special features when used within Sage, the universal mathematics software based on Python. Installation is easy:
sage -python -m easy_install http://snappy.computop.org/get/SnapPy.tar.gz
The graphical features may or may not work, depending on how Tkinter was configured within Sage, but everything else should work fine.
The complete source code for all platforms: SnapPy.tar.gz
You can also get it straight from the Mercurial repository:
hg clone static-http://math.uic.edu/t3m/hg/SnapPy