README: OOMMF
Object Oriented MicroMagnetic computing Framework
Release 1.2a3
This file last modified on: $Date: 2002/10/29 21:31:28 $
OOMMF is a project in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division (MCSD) of ITL/NIST aimed at developing portable, extensible public domain micromagnetic programs and tools. The end product will be a completely functional, user-friendly micromagnetic code, with a well documented, flexible programmer's interface to allow developers outside the OOMMF project to swap their own code in and out as desired. The guts of the code are being written in C++ with a Tcl/Tk (and in the future, possibly OpenGL) interface. Target systems include a wide range of Unix platforms, Windows NT, and Windows '9X.
The main contributors to OOMMF are Mike Donahue, and Don Porter.
Before you can do anything with OOMMF, you must have Tcl/Tk installed on your computer. The Tcl/Tk Core is available for free download from the Tcl Developer eXchange at http://purl.org/tcl/home/. OOMMF requires at least Tcl version 7.5 and Tk version 4.1 on Unix platforms, and requires at least Tcl version 8.0 and Tk version 8.0 on Microsoft Windows platforms. However, OOMMF runs best with the latest 8.x version of both Tcl and Tk. OOMMF software does not support any alpha or beta versions of Tcl/Tk.
QUICK INSTALL:
Most OOMMF users on MS Windows platforms will download a release with pre-compiled executables compatible with Tcl/Tk 8.4.x. Type the following commands at an MS-DOS Prompt to start using OOMMF:
unzip oommf12a3_20021029.zip
cd oommf
tclsh84 oommf.tcl pimake upgrade
tclsh84 oommf.tcl
For most OOMMF users on Unix, the following sequence of commands should upgrade, build, and run your OOMMF installation:
gunzip -c oommf12a3_20021029.tar.gz | tar xvf -
cd oommf
oommf.tcl pimake distclean
oommf.tcl pimake upgrade
oommf.tcl pimake
oommf.tcl
If that does not work, read the more detailed instructions in the _OOMMF User's Guide_.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT UPGRADING TO OOMMF 1.2:
In OOMMF 1.2 releases, the directory formerly known as "ext" has been renamed "pkg". If you unpack OOMMF 1.2 over a previous of OOMMF, the old ext directory will not be overwritten, and the
oommf.tcl pimake upgrade
will not delete it. If you made any modifications to files in the directory "ext", be sure to copy them over to the new directory "pkg", and then we advise you delete the directory "ext".
Of course, this can all be avoided by installing OOMMF 1.2 in a fresh location, not over the top of a previous OOMMF installation.
The _OOMMF User's Guide_ is available as the PostScript file ./doc/userguide.ps or as a tree of hyperlinked HTML files rooted in the file ./doc/userguide/userguide.html . A simple HTML browser application, mmHelp, is distributed with OOMMF software (in the directory app/mmhelp). It will display the _OOMMF User's Guide_ by default. The Tcl/Tk Windowing Shell program 'wish' is needed to run mmHelp with the following command line:
wish app/mmhelp/mmhelp.tcl
where you may need to replace the general name 'wish' with the specific name of the Tk Windowing Shell program on your platform (say, 'wish4.2' or 'wish80.exe'). Consult your Tcl/Tk documentation.
For instructions on downloading, installing and using OOMMF software, see the 'Installation' section of the _OOMMF User's Guide_.
For the latest information about OOMMF software, see http://math.nist.gov/oommf/.
To contact the OOMMF developers, send e-mail to <michael.donahue@nist.gov>.
Major updates to the OOMMF project are announced on the "muMag Announcement" mailing list. To join the list, see http://www.ctcms.nist.gov/~rdm/email-list.html