Power Tab Editor

Users

• New user? Read the intro page to learn more about the project!
• You can get the latest releases from our downloads page.
• You can report bugs or suggest features on our issue tracker.

Developers

Getting the code:

If you're using GitHub for Windows, just use the "Clone in Desktop" button.

Otherwise, make sure to use git clone --recursive to initialize submodules in the external folder:

git clone --recursive git://github.com/powertab/powertabeditor.git

If you've already cloned the repository, you can run git submodule init && git submodule update.

Dependencies:

• CMake >= 2.8.9
• Boost 1.55 or greater
  • Earlier versions may work, but are currently untested
• Qt 5.4 or greater
• zlib
• (Linux only) - ALSA library (e.g. libasound2-dev)
• (Linux only) - MIDI sequencer (e.g. timidity)
• (Linux only) - libbfd (e.g. binutils-dev)
• A compiler with C++11 support (gcc 4.8+, Clang, VS 2013)

Windows:

• Install Git - see https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git
• Building Boost:
  • Download and extract Boost 1.56 to C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_56_0.
  • Download and extract zlib to any directory. However, the path must not contain any spaces.
  • Open a command prompt (e.g. VS2013 x64 Native Tools Command Prompt) and navigate to the Boost directory.
  • Run bootstrap and then b2 -s ZLIB_SOURCE=/path/to/zlib link=shared address-model=64 variant=debug,release.
    • Use address-model=32 for a 32-bit build.
    • If building both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, use --stagedir=stage32 to place the 32-bit versions under a different directory (stage32/lib instead of stage/lib), and set BOOST_LIBRARYDIR accordingly when running CMake.
• Installing Qt:
  • Download the online installer from https://www.qt.io/download-open-source/.
  • Install the msvc2015 64-bit component (or msvc2015 32-bit for a 32-bit build)
• Compiling Qt (optional):
  • You may want to do this instead if you intend on building the installer so that Qt can be built without dependencies on huge libraries such as icu.
  • Download and extract the source code.
  • If necessary, install Python 2.7.x and add it to your PATH.
  • Open a command prompt (e.g. VS2013 x64 Native Tools Command Prompt) and navigate to the Qt source directory.
  • Run configure -opensource -nomake examples -nomake tests -skip qtwebkit -skip qtwebengine -skip qtconnectivity -skip qtandroidextras -skip qtlocation -skip qtscript -opengl desktop -debug-and-release -mp -no-icu -c++11 -prefix C:\Qt\5.4.1 and accept the license agreement.
  • Run nmake and nmake install and grab a cup of coffee ...
• Install and open CMake, and browse to select the location of the root directory (e.g. $HOME/Documents/GitHub/powertabeditor).
• Set the build directory to $HOME/Documents/GitHub/powertabeditor/build.
• Use the "Add Entry" button to set the STRING CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to the cmake directory inside Qt's installation directory (e.g. C:\Qt\5.4.1\lib\cmake)
• For Windows XP support, set CMAKE_GENERATOR_TOOLSET to v140_xp.
• Press Configure and select your compiler version (e.g. Visual Studio 14 Win64, or Visual Studio 14 for a 32-bit build) and then press Generate
• Open the resulting solution (powertabeditor.sln) and select Build Solution from the Build menu.
• Right-click on the powertabeditor project and select "Set as Startup Project" before running.

Linux:

• These instructions assume a recent Ubuntu/Debian-based system, but the package names should be similar for other package managers.
  • For older Ubuntu systems (such as Ubuntu 12.04) - you may need to add some PPAs to get updated versions of the dependencies.
• Install dependencies:
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install cmake qtbase5-dev libboost-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-iostreams-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-regex-dev libasound2-dev libiberty-dev binutils-dev rapidjson-dev libpugixml-dev catch librtmidi-dev
  • sudo apt-get install timidity - timidity is not required for building, but is a good sequencer for MIDI playback.
  • Optionally, use Ninja instead of make (sudo apt-get install ninja-build)
• Build:
  • mkdir build && cd build
  • cmake ..
    • Add -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/some/path to customize the install directory.
    • Add -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug for a debug build instead of a Release build.
    • Add -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ to compile with Clang.
    • Add -G Ninja to generate Ninja build files.
  • make -j8 or ninja
• Run:
  • ./bin/powertabeditor
  • ./bin/pte_tests to run the unit tests.
• Install:
  • make install or ninja install

OS X:

• Tested with Mac OS X 10.9 and above.
• Install Xcode along with its Command Line Tools.
• Install CMake:
  • If you prefer a GUI, download the CMake installer.
  • Otherwise, run brew install cmake
• Install dependencies:
  • brew install boost qt5
• Build:
  • mkdir build && cd build
  • cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt5/lib/cmake ..
    • If necessary, define BOOST_ROOT to point to the root directory where Boost was installed (e.g. /usr/local/opt/boost).
    • To generate an Xcode project, add -G Xcode.
  • For a Makefile build, run make -j4.
  • For Xcode, open and build build/powertabeditor.xcodeproj.
• Run:
  • ./bin/powertabeditor
  • ./bin/pte_tests or make test to run the unit tests.
  • For Xcode, select Product/Scheme/powertabeditor and then Product/Run.