Installation

How to install and start using the toolkit

Introduction

Here we describe how to install and start using the toolkit (it's pretty simple!)

Download

Download the latest distribution; either (note: these distributions are suitable for all platforms):

1. git repository -- by taking a git clone of this repo. This is the bleeding edge to stay right up to date. See https://github.com/jlizier/jidt for repo details, and AntScripts for build instructions as you will have to build it yourself from the repo; or
2. v1.6.1 full distribution -- this is recommended for users preferring not to use git (includes jar file, javadocs, demonstrations, unit tests and build scripts).

See all distributions and brief descriptions at Downloads.

Dependencies

None! You don't need any other downloads to start using this code in general.

There are only dependencies if:

1. You don't have java installed - download the Java SE / JDK. It's better to install the JDK (development kit) instead of JRE (runtime environment), since this will allow you to make Java code changes instead of only running the java code;
2. You wish to (re-)build the project (if you're changing the source files or using a git checkout instead of downloading the zip) using the build.xml script - this requires ant. See AntScripts for build instructions;
3. You wish to run the JUnit test cases - this requires JUnit - for how to run JUnit with our ant script see JUnitTestCases and AntScripts;
4. You wish to use the GPU estimators - this requires a CUDA-enabled GPU card, and CUDA toolkit installed; see the GPU page for details.
5. Additional preparation may be required to use JIDT in GNU Octave or Python; see UseInOctaveMatlab or UseInPython respectively.

Install

If you have one of the distributions:

1. Unzip the distribution to a location of your choice, and/or move the infodynamics.jar file to a relevant location. Note:
   1. try to ensure the location does not have a space in the full path name as I've had reports of this not functioning properly (but have not tracked the source of error yet).
   2. if you are on a Mac, try to avoid unzipping underneath the Downloads or Documents folders, this can cause problems for smooth running of the AutoAnalyser (more details on that wiki page).
   3. ensure that infodynamics.jar is on the Java classpath when your code attempts to access it (see e.g. SimpleJavaExamples). This is down automatically for you by code generated with the AutoAnalyser.
2. To update to a new version, simply copy the new distribution over the top of the previous one.

Otherwise, if you are running with the source code via git, see AntScripts regarding running ant to generate infodynamics.jar.

Also, if you wish to use the GPU estimators you will need to build these via ant - see the GPU page.

That's it.

Usage

See Documentation and Demos for some guided examples on getting started and using the code.