[Bioperl-l] Installing BioPerl on Windows

[Nathan Haigh]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bioperl-l-bounces at portal.open-bio.org [mailto:bioperl-l-bounces at portal.open-bio.org] On Behalf Of Brian Osborne
> Sent: 09 December 2004 20:07
> To: Barry Moore; Jason Stajich
> Cc: Bioperl List
> Subject: RE: [Bioperl-l] Installing BioPerl on Windows
> 
> Barry,
> 
> Your proposed revisions are the third time someone has attempted to redo the
> Windows installation file. Or perhaps the fourth? The other well-intentioned
> authors made their attempts for the same reasons you did: 1) Windows users
> are a sizable fraction of the users with installation problems. 2) Windows
> users with problems have the same questions, again and again ("where or what
> is GD?", etc). 3) These users have not read the INSTALL.WIN file, or have
> not paid attention.
> 
> So, I'm fairly certain that your proposed changes will make no difference,
> no matter how well-reasoned they are. If people don't read this file,
> changing it makes no difference. So, where would you put a "Windows tips"
> file? Again, I don't think Windows users pay attention to the files in the
> top directory. Check out the first section of the README file, it directs
> them immediately to INSTALL.WIN, very obvious, so these users aren't reading
> the README either. I'm not being snide here, I just think the mode of
> Windows installation doesn't naturally lead to reading these top-level
> documents. Different from Unix.

I believe that if a user does make it to this file, the modifications will make more sense to a windows user.

> 
> Question: when the Windows user downloads the package what do they do with
> it? Given a typical approach, what's the best place to put information on
> Windows installation? On the Web download page perhaps?

The Windows user doesn't actually download the package themselves, this is what PPM is for. If the user encounters problems with PPM
(assuming they know how to use it etc, and have added the Bioperl repository etc), they may then manually download the pakage to
install using nmake. However, this al means that the don't have the package to unpack, don't see the top level, and don't see the
README's.
The first thing a would-be Windows BioPerl user will do is look at the Homepage, try to find out exactly what Bioperl can do (this
isn't obvious to a newbie-maybe have a short synopsis at the top, followed by a link to a more though explaination), then they'll
want to find out how to install it (so an Installation link on the menu would be good - if they do to the download page first, they
are likely to get confused at first (if they see the packages to download at the top of the download page, they may never get to the
installation instructions towards the bottom).
I found that the Bioperl website is geared up towards people who are familiar with what is there, where it is and the relevant files
are accessable first (at the tops of pages), for someone who's newish to the site, they can waste a fair amount of time trying to
find the info they want, and may resort to asking the mailing list before thoroughly looking around the site.
May I suggest that the left hand menu on the homepage is modified to include direct links to important pages things such as:
Installation (or Windows Install) - Windows users shouldn't miss this being on the homepage menu near the top! This should get the
user to the windows install file with as few clicks as possible!
Documentation - with links to all the module documentation including Bioperl-run etc: my first time to the website, I couldn't find
Bioperl-run docs for the life in me, although it's obvious now I'm familiar with it's layout.

The GD install problem should be addressed with the additional repositories in the CVS INSTALL.WIN and Barry's install file.

Anyway, it late and I hope I haven't offended any windows users! I am one myself!
Nathan

> 
> Another effective way to do these kinds of documents is to get all the
> frequently asked questions/problems and address them specifically. So, you'd
> have a "quick start" section first, as you did, then follow it immediately
> with a list of questions/problems and answers. Yes, you might consider
> putting these into the existing FAQ but then each time the user writes
> "where is ...?" you'd have to answer "please check the FAQ 4.2 ...". Less
> than ideal, since the idea is to set things up so that the users don't have
> to write bioperl-l.
> 
> Thank you for efforts.
> 
> Brian O.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bioperl-l-bounces at portal.open-bio.org
> [mailto:bioperl-l-bounces at portal.open-bio.org]On Behalf Of Barry Moore
> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 4:15 PM
> To: Jason Stajich
> Cc: Brian Osborne; Bioperl List
> Subject: [Bioperl-l] Installing BioPerl on Windows
> 
> 
> Jason, Brian, Others-
> 
> A recent message to the bioperl list suggests that new Windows users are
> still having problems installing Bioperl on Windows. This is not
> necessary because it's actually quite easy to install Bioperl 1.4. I had
> a look at the INSATLL.WIN document and I think that while it has been
> updated a bit, it is starting to suffer from fragmented editing over a
> long period of time. All the information that you need is there, but it
> doesn't really fit together to well anymore, and there is still some
> outdated and conflicting information present. Since new Windows users
> are often the least likely to be experienced programmers and also likely
> to have little Unix experience it may also need to be written with that
> in mind, providing more explanation for how things are done. I've taken
> a crack at this and rewritten INSTALL.WIN with a longer (perhaps to
> long) introduction to Bioperl, and updated installation instruction for
> Bioperl 1.4. In fact I think that the file name INSTALL.WIN should
> probably be changed as that is a filename that is intuitive to someone
> who has done a lot of installing from source.
> Installing_Bioperl_on_Windows.txt may be more obvious filename to new
> Windows users. If you think it looks useful please feel free to post it
> on the Bioperl web site as a replacement for or in addition to the
> current INSTALL.WIN. I'll be happy to try to keep this document up to
> date, but I'll need one of the developers to put it on the site for me.
> Finally, I didn't touch the Cygwin sections of the previous INSTALL.WIN
> document because I have no experience with it, so I'll have to assume
> that it is accurate and let others contribute any fixes necessary there.
> Let me know if I've made any errors or omissions that need to be corrected.
> 
> Barry
> 
> ============================================================================
> ======
> 
> Installing Bioperl on Windows
> =============================
> 
> 1) Quick Instructions for the impatient
> 2) Bioperl on Windows
> 3) Perl on Windows
> 4) BioPerl on Windows
> 5) Beyond the Core
> 6) BioPerl in Cygwin
> 7) Cygwin tips
> 
> This installation guide was written by Barry Moore and other Bioperl
> authors based on the
> original work of Paul Boutros. Please report problems and/or fixes to
> the bioper lmailing
> list, bioperl-l at bioperl.org
> 
> 1) Quick instructions for the impatient, lucky, or experienced user.
> =====================================================================
> 
> Download the ActivePerl MSI from
> http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
> Run the ActivePerl Installer (accepting all defaults is fine).
> Open a command prompt (Menus Start->Run and type cmd) and run the ppm
> shell (C:\>ppm).
> Add two new ppm repositories with the following commands:
> ppm> rep add Bioperl http://bioperl.org/DIST
> ppm> rep add Kobes http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms
> Install Bioperl-1.4.
> Go to http://www.bioperl.org and start reading documentation or try the
> example script at
> the end of this file.
> 
> 
> 2) Bioperl on Windows
> ======================
> 
> Bioperl is a large collection of Perl modules (extensions to the Perl
> language) that aid
> in the task of writing perl code to deal with sequence data in a myriad
> of ways. Bioperl
> provides objects for various types of sequence data and their associated
> features and
> annotations. It provides interfaces for analysis of these sequences with
> a wide variety
> of external programs (BLAST, fasta, clustalw and EMBOSS to name just a
> few). It provides
> interfaces to various types of databases both remote (GenBank, EMBL
> etc.) and local
> (MySQL, flat files, GFF etc.) for storage and retrieval of sequences.
> And finally with
> its associated documentation and mailing list Bioperl represents a
> community of
> bioinformatics professionals working in perl who are committed to
> supporting both
> development of Bioperl and the new users who are drawn to the project.
> 
> While most bioinformatics and computational biology applications are
> developed in
> Unix/Linux environments, more and more programs are being ported to
> other operating
> systems like Windows, and many users (often biologists with little
> background in
> programming) are looking for ways to automate bioinformatics analyses in
> the Windows
> environment. Perl and Bioperl can be installed natively on Windows
> NT/2000/XP. Most of
> the functionality of Bioperl is available with this type of install.
> Much of the heavy
> lifting in bioinformatics is done by programs originally developed in
> lower level
> languages like C and Pascal (e.g. BLAST, clustalw, Staden etc.). Bioperl
> simply acts as a
> wrapper for running and parsing output from these external programs.
> Some of those
> programs (BLAST for example) are ported to Windows. These can be
> installed and work
> quite happily with BioPerl in the native Windows environment. Others,
> such as clustalw,
> have Windows ports, however the BioPerl developer who wrote the
> interface used Unix
> specific system calls to interact with these programs and so these
> wrappers will not work
> in the Windows environment. And finally some external programs such as
> Staden and the
> EMBOSS suite of programs can not be installed on Windows at all, and
> therefore any part
> of Bioperl that interacts with these packages either won't work or can't
> be installed at
> all.
> 
> If you have a fairly simple project in mind, want to start using Bioperl
> quickly, only
> have access to a computer running Windows, and/or don't mind bumping up
> against some
> limitations then Bioperl on Windows may be a good place for you to
> start. For example,
> downloading a bunch of sequences from GenBank and sorting out the ones
> that have a
> particular annotation or feature works great. Running a bunch of your
> sequences against
> remote or local BLAST, parsing the output and storing it in a MySQL
> database would be
> fine also. Be aware that most if not all of the Bioperl developers are
> working in some
> type of a Unix environment (Linux, OSX, Cygwin). If you have problems
> with Bioperl that
> are specific to the Windows environment, you may be blazing new ground
> and your pleas for
> help on the Bioperl mailing list may get few responses - simply because
> no one knows the
> answer to your Windows specific problem. If this is or becomes a problem
> for you then
> you are better off working in some type of Unix like environment. One
> solution to this
> problem that will keep you working on a Windows machine it to install
> Cygwin, a Unix
> emulation environment for Windows. A number of Bioperl users are using
> this approach
> successfully and it is discussed more below.
> 
> 3) Perl on Windows
> ===================
> 
> There are a couple of ways of installing Perl on a Windows machine. The
> most common and
> easiest is to get the most recent build from ActiveState. ActiveState is
> a software
> company (http://www.activestate.com) that provides free builds of Perl
> for Windows
> users. The current (December 2004) build is ActivePerl 5.8.4.810
> (ActivePerl 5.6.1.638
> is also available and should work just fine). To install ActivePerl on
> Windows:
> Download the ActivePerl MSI from
> http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
> Run the ActivePerl Installer (accepting all defaults is fine).
> 
> You can also build Perl yourself (which requires a C compiler) or
> download one of the
> other binary distributions. The Perl source for building it yourself is
> available from
> CPAN (http://www.cpan.org), as are a few other binary distributions that
> are alternatives
> to ActiveState. This approach is not recommended unless you have
> specific reasons for
> doing so and know what you're doing. It that's the case you probably
> don't need to be
> reading this guide.
> 
> Cygwin is a Unix emulation environment for Windows and comes with its
> own copy of Perl.
> Information on Cygwin and Bioperl is found below.
> 
> 4) BioPerl on Windows
> ======================
> 
> Perl is a programming language that has been extended a lot by the
> addition of external
> modules. These modules work with the core language to extend the
> functionality of Perl.
> Bioperl is one such extension to Perl. These modular extensions to Perl
> sometimes depend
> on the functionality of other Perl modules and this creates a
> dependency. You can't
> install module X unless you have already installed module Y. Some Perl
> modules are so
> fundamentally useful that the Perl developers have included them in the
> core distribution
> of Perl - if you've installed Perl then these modules are already
> installed. Other
> modules are freely available from CPAN, but you'll have to install them
> yourself if you
> want to use them. BioPerl has such dependencies.
> 
> Bioperl is actually a large collection of perl modules (over 1000
> currently) and these
> modules are split into six groups. These six groups are:
> 
> Bioperl Group Functions
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> bioperl (the core) Most of the main functionality of Bioperl.
> bioperl-run Wrappers to a lot of external programs.
> bioperl-ext Interaction with some alignment functions
> and the Staden package.
> bioperl-db Using bioperl with BioSQL and local
> relational databases.
> bioperl-microarray Microarray specific functions.
> biperl-gui Some preliminary work on a graphical user
> interface to some Bioperl functions.
> 
> The Bioperl core is what most new users will want to start with. Bioperl
> 1.4 (the core)
> and the Perl modules that it depends on can be easily installed with
> ppm. PPM
> (Programming Package Manager) is an ActivePerl utility for installing
> Perl modules on
> systems using ActivePerl. PPM will look online (you have to be connected
> to the internet
> of course) for files (these files end with .ppd) that tell it how to
> install the modules
> you want and what other modules your new modules depends on. It will
> then download and
> install your modules and all dependent modules for you. These .ppd files
> are stored
> online in ppm repositories. ActiveState maintains the largest ppm
> repository and when
> you installed ActivePerl ppm was installed with directions for using the
> ActiveState
> repositories. Unfortunately the ActiveState repositories are far from
> complete and other
> ActivePerl users maintain their own ppm repositories to fill in the
> gaps. Installing
> will require you to direct ppm to look in two new repositories. You do
> this by opening a
> Windows command prompt, typing ppm to start the ppm shell and then
> typing the following
> two commands:
> ppm> rep add Bioperl http://bioperl.org/DIST
> ppm> rep add Kobes http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms
> 
> Once ppm knows where to look for Bioperl and it's dependencies you
> simply tell ppm to
> install it. This is done with the command:
> ppm> install Bioperl-1.4
> 
> 5) Beyond the Core
> ===================
> 
> You may find that you want some of the features of other Bioperl groups
> like bioperl-run
> or bioperl-db. There are currently no ppm packages for installing these
> parts of
> Bioperl. You will have to install these manually from source. For this
> you will need a
> Windows version of the program make called nmake
> (http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/Nmake15.ex
> e).
> You will
> also want to have a willingness to experiment. You'll have to read the
> installation
> documents for each component that you want to install, and use nmake
> where the
> instructions call for make. You will have to determine from the
> installation documents
> what dependencies are required and you will have to get them, read there
> documentation
> and install them first. The details of this are beyond the scope of this
> guide. Read
> the documentation. Search Google. Try your best, and if you get stuck
> consult with
> other on the bioperl mailing list.
> 
> 6) BioPerl in Cygwin
> =====================
> 
> Cygwin is a Unix emulator and shell environment available free at
> www.cygwin.com. BioPerl
> runs well within Cygwin. Some users claim that installation of Bioperl
> is easier within
> Cygwin than within Windows, but these may be users with Unix backgrounds.
> 
> One advantage of using Bioperl in Cygwin is that all the external
> modules are available
> through CPAN, most if not all external programs can be installed and run
> so many of the
> limitation of Bioperl on Windows are circumvented.
> 
> To get Bioperl running first install the basic Cygwin package as well as
> the Cygwin Perl,
> make, and gcc packages. Clicking the "View" button in the upper right of
> the installer
> enables you to see details on the various packages. Then follow the
> BioPerl installation
> instructions for Unix in BioPerl's INSTALL file.
> 
> Note that expat comes with Cygwin (it's used by the module XML::Parser).
> 
> One known issue is that DBD::mysql can be tricky to install in
> Cygwin and this module is required for the bioperl-db, Biosql, and
> bioperl-pipeline
> external packages. Fortunately there's some good instructions online:
> http://search.cpan.org/src/JWIED/DBD-mysql-2.1025/INSTALL.html#windows/cygwi
> n.
> 
> Also, set the environmental variable TMPDIR, programs like BLAST and
> clustalw need a
> place to create temporary files. e.g.:
> 
> setenv TMPDIR e:/cygwin/tmp # csh, tcsh
> export TMPDIR=e:/cygwin/tmp # sh, bash
> 
> Note that this is not a syntax that Cygwin understands, which would be
> something like
> "/cygdrive/e/cygwin/tmp". This is the syntax that a Perl module expects
> on Windows.
> 
> If this variable is not set correctly you'll see errors like this when
> you run
> Bio::Tools::Run::StandAloneBlast:
> 
> ------------- EXCEPTION: Bio::Root::Exception -------------
> MSG: Could not open /tmp/gXkwEbrL0a: No such file or directory
> STACK: Error::throw
> ..........
> 
> 7) Cygwin tips
> ===============
> 
> The easiest way to install Mysql is to use the Windows binaries
> available at
> www.mysql.com. Note that Windows does not have sockets, so you need to
> force the Mysql
> connections to use TCP/IP instead. Do this by using the "-h" option from
> the command-
> line:
> 
>  >mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -u blip -pblop biosql
> 
> Or, alias the mysql command in your .tcshrc, .cshrc, or .bashrc so it
> uses a host. For
> example, if your databases are installed locally:
> 
> alias mysql 'mysql -h 127.0.0.1'
> 
> If you're trying to use some application or resource "outside" of Cygwin
> and you're
> having a problem remember that Cygwin's path syntax may not be the
> correct one. Cygwin
> understands '/home/jacky' or '/cygdrive/e/cygwin/home/jacky' (when
> referring to the E:
> drive) but the external resource may want 'E:/cygwin/home/jacky'. So
> your *rc files may
> end up with paths written in these different syntaxes, depending.
> 
> If you can, install Cygwin on a drive or partition that's
> NTFS-formatted, not FAT32-
> formatted. When you install Cygwin on a FAT32 partition you will not be
> able to set
> permissions and ownership correctly. In most situations this probably
> won't make any
> difference but there may be occasions where this is a problem.
> 
> If you want to use BLAST we recommend that the Windows binary be
> obtained from NCBI
> (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/executables/LATEST-BLAST - the file will
> be named something
> like blast-2.2.6-ia32-win32.exe). Then follow the Windows instructions
> in README.bls.
> 
> Although we've recommended using the BLAST and MySQL binaries you should
> be able to
> compile just about everything else from source code using Cygwin's gcc.
> You'll notice
> when you're installing Cygwin that many different libraries are also
> available (gd, jpeg,
> etc.).
> 
> 
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