Plasma:  Parallel LAnguage for System Modelling and Analysis
============================================================

Plasma is a superset of C++, adding parallel extensions similar to that provided
by the language Occam.

Plasma is released under the 3-clause BSD License, a copy of which may be found in
the file COPYING.

Plasma contains two other open-source packages: OpenC++ the the
Boehnm-Demers-Weiser conservative garbage collector.  License information for
OpenC++ may be found in the directory opencxx/COPYING and license information
for the garbage collector may be found in gc/doc/README.

Platforms Supported
-------------------

MinGW32

	Only the Boehm garbage collector and libltdl portions of Plasma have
	been ported to MinGW.  This is sufficient for using the run-time
	needs of ADL, but the actual Plasma language is not supported.  To
	install, run "./configure --disable-frontend && make all check
	install".

Cygwin
		
	Plasma has been ported to Cygwin, but preemption in the Plasma
	run-time kernel is not currently supported.  To install, run
	"./configure && make all check install".

Linux (32 and 64 bit)

	This is the primary development platform for Plasma.  Just run
	"./configure" and "make all check install" to build, run the
	regression, and install the package.

Required Packages
-----------------

To build:

  gcc 3.4.3 or higher is required.  On the GAIN network, this translates to
  packages gnu-gcc-3.4.3-binutils-2.15 or gnu-gcc-3.4.1-binutils-2.15

To reconfigure, you will need:

  Autoconf 2.59 (gnu-autoconf-2.59) Perl 5.8 or higher (perl-5.8)

For documentation:

  Latex:  tetex-2.0.2 (or higher)
  Skribe: inria-skribe-/1.2b

To Build From CVS
-----------------

./autogen.sh <options>

  This runs autoconf and automake, then runs configure.  After it's done, run
  make.

  You need automake 1.9.2 and autoconf 2.59 for this to work.

  You can also just run ./configure, as described below.  However, you will need
  to configure with "--enable-maintainer-mode" or run autogen.sh in order to
  modify any Makefile.am.  This will, of course, require automake.

To Build From A Distribution
----------------------------

./configure <options>

  The most common option is "--prefix=<dir>", which specifies the target
  directory.  You may need to modify your PATH or supply other options so that
  configure is able to find the programs it needs, such as gcc 3.4.

make
 
  This builds the system.

make check

  This runs the regression.

make install

  This installs the program.