GAP (polymaking) - Chapter 1: Installation and Preface

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1 Installation and Preface
1.1 A few words about the installation of polymake
1.2 Setting variables for external programs
1.2-1 SetPolymakeDataDirectory
1.2-2 SetPolymakeCommand
1.2-3 Setting variables permanently

### 1 Installation and Preface

To install the package, just unpack it in your packages directory (usually `~/gap/pkg` for local installation). To use polymaking, you need a working installation of the program polymake http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/polymake/. The package has been tested on linux and Mac OS X (10.4, 10.5 and 10.6). But it should be as platform independent as GAP and polymake.

The interaction with polymake is restricted to writing files and carrying out simple operations looking like
`polymake file KEYWORD1 KEYWORD2 KEYWORD3`
on the command line. Scripts are not supported. Every call to polymake will re-start the program anew. This causes considerable overhead. The number of calls to polymake is reduced by caching the results in the so-called `PolymakeObject` in GAP. As of polymaking version 0.8.0, old versions of polymake (i.e. versions before 2.7.9) are not supported anymore.

#### 1.1 A few words about the installation of polymake

polymaking will try to guess the location of polymake. If this fails, a warning is issued at load time (`InfoWarning` level 1). Note that the guessing procedure is suppressed when `POLYMAKE_COMMAND` (3.2-1) is set manually (see 1.2-3).
`setenv PATH ${PATH}:<your polymakepath>`
The general rule is: If polymaking finds polymake by itself, there is nothing to worry about.

#### 1.2 Setting variables for external programs

As polymaking uses the program polymake, it needs to know where this program lives. The communication with polymake is done by writing files for polymake and reading its output (as returned to standard output "the prompt"). Note that the interface does not read any polymake file.

##### 1.2-1 SetPolymakeDataDirectory

`> SetPolymakeDataDirectory`( dir ) | ( method )

Sets the directory in which all polymake files are created to dir. The standard place for these files is a temporary directory generated when the package is loaded. This manipulates `POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR` (3.2-2).

##### 1.2-2 SetPolymakeCommand

`> SetPolymakeCommand`( command ) | ( method )

Sets the name for the polymake program to command. This manipulates `POLYMAKE_COMMAND` (3.2-1).

##### 1.2-3 Setting variables permanently

To permanently set the values of `POLYMAKE_COMMAND` (3.2-1), and `POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR` (3.2-2), add the lines

    POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR:=Directory("/home/mypolymakedatadir");
    POLYMAKE_COMMAND:=Filename(Directory("/home/mypolymakebindir/"),"polymake");

to your `.gaprc` file (see Reference: The .gaprc file). Note that these have to be before the `LoadPackage("polymaking");` line. Or you can change the values of the above variables by editing `lib/environment.gi`

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