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Question: How do I use Arc?
1 point by yojimbo25 5422 days ago | 9 comments
There's been a recent discussion for this for Macs, but as a window user, I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but working from the instructions on http://arclanguage.org/install, my assumption was that I need to startup Mzscheme.exe to type the command and the result is "reference to undefined identifier"

Mac Discussion: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4285617/how-do-i-install-arc-to-get-a-hacker-news-clone-website



3 points by aw 5422 days ago | link

This is a draconian answer, and perhaps someone with more Windows experience can give you other working options to choose from, but honestly, for me personally the easiest way to run Arc on Windows is to install Ubuntu.

You can run Ubuntu inside of Windows (without having to mess around with dual booting or anything) with the free VirtualBox program (http://www.virtualbox.org/) This allows you to run another operating system in a virtual environment... which to Windows, looks like just another Windows program you're running.

My current favorite variant of Ubuntu is Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.com/), which seems to have the least amount of extra windowing junk added in. You download the giant iso file from the Get Xubuntu link (~ 700MB, so it may take a couple hours), and then install it into VirtualBox.

Once you have Ubuntu running, you can go into Applications / Ubuntu Software Center inside the virtual environment, type "plt-scheme" into the search box, and install PLT Scheme.

At that point you can download and untar Arc, and run "mzscheme -f as.scm"

This may seem like a lot of additional work, but an advantage is that when you're ready to deploy your application to a server, you'll already have it working in a Unix environment. And you don't have to deal with various different things annoyingly not working in Windows.

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1 point by rocketnia 5420 days ago | link

I've run Arc on Windows for a long time, but having just started into Ubuntu a week or so ago (now settled into Linux Mint), I have to agree with you that it's a pretty good option. ^_^ Most of the trouble I've had has been with getting the network connection to work, and unless I'm mistaken, VirtualBox makes that much less of an issue.

Once Linux is working, getting Arc to work is easy. :-p

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1 point by aw 5420 days ago | link

Tell me what you like about Linux Mint? I'd like to recommend a Linux distribution, instead of just saying Ubuntu by default.

Yes, an advantage of the virtual environment is that the work of "drivers" in the virtual environment are actually performed by drivers in the host operating system. So if you have for example networking working in the host environment, then it will also work in the virtual environment... without fiddling around with Linux network drivers for your hardware.

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1 point by rocketnia 5419 days ago | link

I want a personalizable interface, I'm very new to Linux, and I don't mind using unfree software like media codecs (something Ubuntu had kept bothering me about ^_^ ), so when I encountered the Linux Mint description at http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major, it seemed like a good fit.

Also, I vaguely had in mind that I wanted a theme with hints of green in places (probably because I had seen Linux Mint somewhere before), and the release of Linux Mint 10 happened the day before my search, so it was sorta meant to be. :-p

I had some trouble with both, which Internet searching was mostly able to resolve. But I never figured out the whole too-much-KDE-on-GNOME thing, for instance. @_@

Right now my network connection is really the most annoying thing, but it's passable as long as I'm patient enough to unplug my USB dongle, plug it back in, and reboot until the magic happens. (One reboot's almost always enough.) Usually I'm not that patient 'cause I'm still trying to figure this out, so I fumble with commands like "service network-manager restart" trying to find some combination of them that will actually work this time around. XD It'd be awesome if someone could help me out with this. ^_^;

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1 point by shader 5419 days ago | link

I prefer Mint mainly because of the decent looking initial theme, and the superior driver support. I've almost never had any issues getting Mint to install properly with everything working on the first try. Also, the install and configuration process is extremely streamlined and easy to follow. Not that Ubuntu is bad, per se, but Mint seems marginally better.

I'd definitely recommend Mint first for someone not yet well acquainted with linux. The ease of install, simple menu, and software installation tool make it a lot nicer on new users.

I run a virtual boxed Mint in seamless mode on Windows 7 continuously, to use as a shell for ssh and programming in certain languages (like arc or c), and I use a heavily modified Mint on my netbook as well.

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1 point by yojimbo25 5421 days ago | link

Thanks for the recommendation, I'm starting the download now. At first I didn't think Windows or Ubuntu would make a difference, but after running into some pretty strange administrator issues with Windows, which wouldn't let Racket access files in other folders, I started having second thoughts..

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1 point by akkartik 5420 days ago | link

Yes, I believe the original arc as released here makes no claims of Windows support.

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2 points by akkartik 5422 days ago | link

This has come up a few times; see google: 'site:arclanguage.org windows'

For example: http://arclanguage.org/item?id=160

The canonical arc may have issues that are fixed in 'anarki' (http://github.com/nex3/arc), but I have no experience with windows myself.

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1 point by yojimbo25 5421 days ago | link

Thanks, http://arclanguage.org/item?id=12397 came up from the search you recommended, I got it to work.

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