IMPORTANT:
There are serious problems with the latest cint version, which we are
investigating. Once these are fixed, .rpm and .deb packages will be
created to make the installation of blop easier. Come back to our
site somewhat later.


REQUIREMENTS:
 
  You need a linux machine with a c++ compiler corresponding to the
  c++ standard (old compilers might fail),  which also supports the
  STL (Standard Template Library of c++)

COMPILATION AND INSTALLATION:

  1.) Download and install CINT (as root)

      Follow the instructions on http://blopplot.sourceforge.net/download.html

  2.) Download blop, and extract the tar archive:

      tar xvzf blop.tar.gz

      This will create a directory called 'blop'. Change to this directory.

  3.) run the configure script by typing:

      ./configure

      This checks if you have a correct CINT version installed. Additionally, 
      it checks if the standard c++ header files and iostream fields exist (if 
      your compiler corresponds to the c++ standard). 

      By default it configures the software to be installed under /usr/local
      If you are unhappy with this, say ./configure --help to learn how to 
      change the installation directories
      It lists a lot of tunable directories. Only the following have effect:
      --prefix
      --exec-prefix
      --bindir
      --datadir       
      --libdir
      --includedir

  4.) If you succeeded, then compile it by saying:

      make

  5.) [Optional step] If it succeeded, then say:

      make test  

      and then look at test.dir/test.ps

  6.) Build the documentation (needed for the installation, since this
      will also be the help system of the software)

      make doc

      and then start browsing the doc/ subdirectory with
      doc/index.html (this is the same documentation, which is available
      at http://blopplot.sourceforge.net)

  7.) If everything seems to be fine, say (as root):

      make install

  8.) Now all the necessary files, which are needed by blop, are copied to
      the installation directory. You can safely remove the whole directory
      with the source files - unless you are so kind to build an .rpm 
      or .deb package (see next step)

  9.) If blop works fine, and you are so much satisfied that you want to
      spread it, and make the installation easier for other guys using
      the same linux distro as you, you can build an installation
      package out of it (.rpm or .deb)
      Change to this directory (where this file is also located), and
      say 

      make rpm 
      make rpminstall

      or

      make deb
      make debinstall

      (depending on whether you have rpm or debian package management
      system). Follow the instructions given during the configure stage