[Attempto] Installation of local version of ACE view

[Kaarel Kaljurand]

Hi,

On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 21:07, Eddy Vanderlinden <info at fadyart.com> wrote:
>
> First of all congratulations on the fantastic project !
> Finally a project for end-users. To promote ontology-usage we'll need such
> tools very much.

Thank you for the kind words. :)

> I have a few questions.
> 1. About the local installation.
> I run on Vista pro and followed the installation instructions.

OK, this is going to be difficult for me to answer, as I don't have
access to a Vista box...

> Where it goes wrong:
>
> Install the latest version of SWI-Prolog (we have tested with v5.6.61)
> This version is not available anymore, thus I worked with the newest
> (5.6.64) and the older one available (5.4.7)

APE should work with 5.6.64 and also with the 5.7.x branch (e.g. 5.7.8).
It definitely does not work with 5.4.7.

> Create ape.exe as explained on the Attempto Downloads page.
> When I run "make_exe.bat" the command windows appears shortly and disappears
> without making the exe file. I tried this with versions 6.0.081023 and an
> older version 080506.

It would be good to get more information. E.g. maybe you can install
Cygwin or something similar and run the installation from a Bash shell
and send me the output that is printed to the terminal.

> Can the file ape.exe be put at disposal somewhere or
> sent by e-mail plse ?

It probably would not work this way as the SWI-Prolog saved state format
(which the exe-file essentially is) is not that platform independent.

> Copy libjpl.jnilib (libjpl.so on Linux, libjpl.dll on Windows) into the
> Protégé root directory. You can find this file among the libraries that come
> with your SWI Prolog installation. The installation paths differ among
> operating systems and SWI Prolog versions. For example, in MacOS X
> Tiger/PPC, this file is located in
> /opt/local/lib/swipl-5.6.61/lib/powerpc-darwin8.11.0/
> There is not file called libjpl in the package. I copied however a file
> libpl.dll into the root dir of Protégé. Hope this would be OK.

Nope, libpl.dll is the core SWI-Prolog library, you need libjpl.dll.
I have no idea why it is not included in the Vista package of SWI-Prolog.
You could try to compile SWI-Prolog from the sources maybe.
Or maybe post to the SWI-Prolog mailing list asking about the Vista
package and if/where it has the JPL libraries.

> 2. About the view via Protégé 4.0
> I have an ontology with links to other ontologies (same domain).
> When I load the tab, it takes a long while, understandably, I hope to
> shorten it with the local installation but... I don't see the main ontology.
> First I have to unload the linked ontologies, after that the main ontology
> is accessible.
> Can I switch in one way or another without deleting the linked ontologies ?

In general, you should be able to switch between the main ontology and
the ontologies that it imports. There is a selection-box (as part of
the standard Protege)
at the top of the window, just below the menu bar.

Does it work as expected if you use Protege without ACE View?

If it's possible, you could send me your ontology/ontologies, so that I could
take a look. Otherwise it's difficult to say what could have gone wrong.

> I am eager to learn about the syntax and feel enormously gratefull to be
> able to use this nice tool allready. A big thanks !
> Hope the performance is still increasing and the development continued and
> look forward for answers.

The development will continue for sure until the end of June. Then I'll take
a break and travel for up to a year. So the future of ACE View depends
on if I can find developers who are willing to go on maintaining and extending
ACE View. If you are interested in contributing and can program in Java, then
send me an email.

> Your tool is certainly if not the main, one of the main factors of succes
> and acceptance of the ontology I'm working on.

Thanks again. ;)

--
kaarel