Soar 7.1 Windows Installation Instructions (Proposed)
Christopher R. Waterson
waterson@eecs.umich.edu
4/4/97


This document describes how to install and configure Soar 7.1 for
Windows 95 and Windows NT. Hopefully, most of this will go away when
we figure out how to use an installer program.


Installation
============

1. Install Tcl 7.6 and Tk 4.2, Patch 2, available from
http://www.sunlabs.com/tcl/. By default, Tcl and Tk will install
themselves in "C:\Program Files\TCL". CHANGE THIS TO "C:\PROGRA~1\TCL"
(or whatever the DOS path name of your "Program Files" directory
is). See "Known Bugs" below for more details.

2. Download and unzip the Soar distribution file. This will create a
directory "Soar 7.1 Installation".

3. Move the directory named "soar" from the Soar 7.1 Installation
directory to "C:\Program Files\TCL\lib".

4. By default, the "soar_library" Tcl variable will be set to
"C:\Program Files\TCL\soar". Set the SOAR_LIBRARY environment variable
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (on Windows 95) or in the System Properties
dialog (on Windows NT) if you require an alternate location for your
library files.



Known Bugs
==========

1. Whitespace in Tcl/Tk Path
----------------------------

This applies only to Windows. The tcl_pkgPath must not contain
whitespace or else you won't be able to get packages to work. (For
example, I installed Tcl and Tk in "C:\Program Files\Tcl" and spent a
ton of time tracking down problems.) Basically, Tcl treats whitespace
as separators for lists, and whoever coded the package pathing stuff
was just a little bit careless: it'll try to use "C:\Program" and
"Files\Tcl" as separate directories in the search path.

If you have already installed Tcl in a directory with whitespace in
the path name (like "Program Files"), you can do one of two things:
uninstall Tcl and re-install it somewhere else (where the path name
has no whitespace), or fix it.

Here's how to fix it:

1. Figure out the DOS pathname of the Tcl home directory; e.g.,
"C:\PROGRA~1\TCL".

2. Fire up the Windows registry editor (C:\Windows\RegEdit.exe) and
find the key "SOFTWARE\Sun\Tcl\7.6" in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section.

3. Change the value of the "ROOT" key from the "pretty" name (with
spaces) to the "ugly" DOS name (with no spaces).

4. Restart your system.



2. Segfault on Exit
-------------------

When you exit tclsh or wish after having used Soar, these programs
always seem to segfault. Unfortunately, the segfault occurs somewhere
deep in one of the distribution libraries, so I haven't been able to
track it down yet. Sorry about this ugliness.