Installing the 6.081 software on Windows

Important: First, check to see whether the Python language is already installed on your machine. (This will probably be the case, for example, if you have a Thinkpad running windows.) If Python is already installed, then do not follow these instructions. Instead, see the course staff, so we can help you install things without messing up your current system. If Python isn't installed on your machine, then follow the instructions on this page.

A. Download the software

B. Install the Python language

1. Open the 6.081-python-robot-software folder and double-click on Python-2.4.2.msi.

2. In reply to the options: install the software for all users, use the default directory (C:\Python24\) and in general just click "next" to accept the defaults.

3. Wait for the installation to finish and click "finish".

C. Add Python to your path

1. Open "System" in your computer control panel and click the "Advanced" tab. On that screen click "Environment variables".

2. Scroll down the list of System variables on the lower half of the window until you find a variable called "Path". Highlight it and press "Edit".

3. Scroll to the end of the "Variable value" entry and the characters ;C:\python24. (Don't foget the initial semicolon.) Press OK and close out of the Environment variable and System Properties windows (by pressing OK for each one).

D. Check that Python works

1. Find Python 2.4 in your menu of programs and run "Python (command line)". This should produce a window that says "Python 2.4.2 ..." and ends with a prompt (>>>)

2. At the prompt, type
   >>> 2**10
   and press Enter. The result should be 2¹⁰, or 1024. Try computing 2¹⁰⁰⁰ and verify that this works as well.

3. If this works, you've (probably) successfully installed Python. Close the Python window. Ask for help if something has gone wrong.

C. Install additional python packages

1. Re-open the 6.081-python-robot-software folder on your desktop and double click on Numeric-23.8.win32-py2.4.exe. Accept the defaults (i.e., just click "next"), wait for the installation to complete, and click "finish"

2. Double click on PIL-1.1.5.win32-py2.4.exe. Accept the defaults (i.e., just click "next"), wait for the installation to complete, and click "finish"

E. Install the SoaR software

1. Inside the 6.081-python-robot-software folder should be a folder called soar. In there, double-click on setup.py.

2. To verify that things seem to be working, double-click on soar.py. You should see a black window that says python.exe and a smaller window with Output: and two buttons that say Pioneer and Simulator. If this works, then SoaR should be installed correctly on your machine. Make a shortcut to the soar.py application and place it on your desktop or some other convenient place.

F. Install GNU/Emacs

F. Customize GNU/Emacs

1. Re-open the 6.081-python-robot-software folder from step A and open the subfolder for-emacs. In there is a folder called put-these-files-in-site-lisp. Open that folder. In another window, open your computer's C:Program Files folder, and in there find Emacs and in there find site-lisp. Copy the files from the put-these-in-site-lisp folder into site-lisp.

2. Back in the for-emacs-folder, you should see a file called add-this-text-to-init-file.txt. It contains the following text:

   ;;python
   (setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.py$" . python-mode) auto-mode-alist))
   (setq interpreter-mode-alist (cons '("python" . python-mode)
   				   interpreter-mode-alist))
   (autoload 'python-mode "python-mode" "Python editing mode." t)
   
   (global-font-lock-mode t)
   (font-lock-mode +1)
   

   In the "Options" drop-down menu in emacs, click on save options and note where emacs saves the file. Go to that directory and edit the created .emacs file to include the text lines above using Wordpad. Cut and paste the text to replace the text in that .emacs file.

   This file can be used to customize all sorts of Emacs behaviors. For now, it just tells Emacs to start Python editing mode when visiting file whose name ends in .py, and also has Emacs use different colors to signal Python keywords and other syntactic conventions. Ask an Emacs user about other useful things you might put in this file.

F. Try it!