Instructions for running KnotPlot on Windows
95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP machines
Rob Scharein, 30 April 2002
This document contains information that
can probably be ignored if KnotPlot runs fine on your system. If
you get missing DLL errors, then read the section below on OpenGL/GLUT.
If KnotPlot complains after it is started about not being able to find
its "home", then you will need to read the section below on running KnotPlot.
OpenGL/GLUT
The KnotPlot distribution now comes with GLUT
already installed. The glut32.dll
file is included in the KnotPlot home folder. Please note that DLL files
are hidden by default in most Windows systems, so you may not see the file.
You can do one of two things with the glut32.dll
file:
-
leave it where it is, in the KnotPlot home
folder (typically C:\Program Files\KnotPlot). In this case, only KnotPlot
will have access to the glut32.dll
file (assuming you start KnotPlot in the directory where glut32.dll
resides).
This option is fine if you don't plan on running any other GLUT-based software.
-
the standard system directory where DLLs are
installed. In Windows 98 this is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. This is where I have
my glut32.dll file
sitting, because I run a lot of different GLUT-based programs.
A newer version of the glut32.dll
file may be obtained from one of the GLUT web sites listed below, KnotPlot
should work fine with a newer version.
If you have Windows 95, see the section
later in this file for information regarding OpenGL. All modern version
of Windows come with OpenGL already installed.
KnotPlot download page: http://www.pims.math.ca/knotplot/
GLUT site: http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut3.html
GLUT for Win32 site: http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html
This is the place to get the glut32.dll
file from.
Running KnotPlot
KnotPlot will not run without its set of support
files, the "KnotPlot Distribution". This distribution contains all the
knots in the Rolfsen catalogue, plus many demos and other special goodies.
If you've installed KnotPlot to the location
C:\Program Files\KnotPlot
then KnotPlot should run fine. This folder
is the "KnotPlot Home". If you look in the KnotPlot home folder, you should
see a number of sub-folders, including
basic demos resource special
plus several others.
It's possible that you might have installed
KnotPlot to a folder other than C:\Program Files\KnotPlot
or D:\Program Files\KnotPlot.
In this case you have to let KnotPlot
know where its home is. In Windows NT/2000, this is simple, you can set
the environment variable KNOTPLOT_HOME
to point to wherever the KnotPlot home actually is. There is a similar
mechanism under Windows 95/98/ME.
When KnotPlot starts up, it tries to find
the KnotPlot home folder in the following locations:
-
the value of the KNOTPLOT_HOME
environment variable, if defined
-
the current directory
-
the folder C:\Program Files\KnotPlot
-
the folder D:\Program Files\KnotPlot
KnotPlot uses the first of these that it can
find. If it can't find its home, KnotPlot will complain and exit.
INSTALLING OPENGL (WINDOWS 95 ONLY)
This section If you have Windows 98 or NT or ME or 2000
or XP, you already have OpenGL installed, and you can ignore everything
in this section.
Some older Windows 95 machines don't have
OpenGL installed. If your machine is one of these, you should obtain the
DLL files
glu32.dll and opengl32.dll
from Microsoft and install them in the
appropriate location. You'll be able to tell that you don't have the DLL
files, because you will get an error when running KnotPlot if you don't
have them.