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Downloading and Installing Catacomb

Current version - 2.117   Tue, Nov 18, 2003

Catacomb is written in java and therefore platform independent. The following instructions apply for linux, windows, solaris, MacOSX and possibly others. Catcomb cannot be run on the mac with older operating systems than OSX.

  • Fetch the file ccws-2.117.jar (about 2Mb). If your browser tries to open the file, try right-clicking on the link instead. If this brings up a menu, select "save target as" or something that sounds equivalent. Do not unzip the file, even if your web browser tries to tell you this is a good idea.
  • Install java if necessary from javasoft. Unless you write your own software, the first column, headed "JRE" is the one you want.
  • Run it. Under windows, double-click the file you downloaded. Undr unix change to the directory in which you saved the file and type java -jar ccws-2.117.jar.

    • Possible problems - Linux

    Crashing - a bug in the virtual machine causes occasional crashes with some versions of linux depending on what native libraries are present. The best way round it at present is to run java in server mode by specifying the "-server" flag. That is, type: java -server -jar ccws-2.117.jar.

    On some systems, including Debian and Red Hat, the fonts are awful with java 1.3. The best thing is to install java 1.4 from javasoft.

    It does run under kaffe but the graphics are very slow and a few other things behave strangely. I'd reccommend using javasoft's virtual machine for now.

    Memory: the default maximum heap size is often 16Mb, so it may appear run out of memory when there is plenty available. The fix is to change the heap size when you start java using the -mx switch to set the maximum allowed memory usage eg: java -mx128M ccws-2.117.jar.

    Possible problems - Windows

    If you run it by double-clickingthe jar file, it runs with a maximum memory usage of 16Mb. This is too small for many models and may cause windows to freeze or the whole program to crash. The solution is to run it from a dos box with a command like: java -mx128M ccws-2.117.jar. The -mx flag sets the maximum allowed memory usage. You can also put this instruction in a .bat file and double click that.