Fiswidgets on Windows

Fiswidget applications and toolkit are written in Java which by definition suppose to make them easily portable to windows platform. Unfortunately there are some difficulties. The most difficult part is getting a back-end, which is not written in Java, to work under windows platform. Even assuming that there are binaries available, some issues that are Windows specific still exist. This page will try give an overview of how to run fiswidget application under windows.

JAVA ISSUES

• java virtual machine - In order to get fiswidgets to work on Windows you need to install java on your machine. You can download the latest windows version of Java from Sun website. If you are not planning on compiling Java source code you only need JRE (java runtime environment).We tested everything on Java v 1.4.1
• java jar files - Java JAR files can be used under both Unix and Windows platform without modification. You can get all appropriate JAR files from fiswidgets download page
• cygwin - Cygwin is the Unix environment for Windows platform. It allows developers to port applications originally designed for Unix platform to Windows with relative ease.  The applications compiled under cygwin  can be used inside cygwin environment or outside of it. In order to run cygwin applications outside of cygwin environment cygwin1.dll along with other dll files that the compiled binary depends on has to be in the same directory as the binary or some other directory that is in Windows PATH (ex. C:\WINDOWS). Cygwin does not need to be installed on your machine if you already have compiled binaries with appropriate cygwin dll files.
• CLASSPATH - In order to find java jar files, java virtual machine needs to know their location. It finds them by looking at CLASSPATH environment variable. To setup CLASSPATH environment variable under Windows NT/2000/XP right-click on "My Computer", select "Properties", go to "Advanced" tab, and click on "Environment Variables" button. This will bring up a dialog box with user and system specific environment variables. You can make CLASSPATH a user or system specific, it is up to you. Simply click "New..." and enter the variable name as "CLASSPATH" and the variable value as a semicolon separated list of paths to java jar files.  To setup CLASSPATH on Windows 95/98/Me series, you should edit c:\autoexec.bat  file, add a line  set CLASSPATH=[list of jar files]. and reboot your machine.

• CLASSPATH - In your classpath you need to list jar files for the packages you are going to be using. There are also jar files that have to be installed for fiswidgets to work. Here is the list of jar files you would need to use for all fiswidget applications. The list assumes that jar files have been installed in c:\java\jar directory: c:\java\jar\fiswidgets-system.jar;c:\java\jar\fiswidgets-all.jar;c:\java\jar\Jama.jar; c:\java\jar\tools.jar;  Now you can add c:\java\jar\afni.jar and c:\java\jar\air.jar to your classpath to use those packages.
• .fisproperties - Is fiswidgets configuration file that must reside in user's home directory. Under Windows the location of the home directory is not obvious. Windows 2000/XP have a home directory in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username], on Windows NT home directory is in C:\WINNT\Users\[Username], while on Windows 95/98/ME home directory is C:\Windows. Here is an example .fisproperties file. Note that this file is configured for  Windows 2000 and only for the packages that we have currently ported. One notable change for Window 95/98/Me is that FIS_CSH_SHELL must point to command instead of cmd. This file has to be changed for each site to have appropriate paths for all supported packages.

FIS_CSH_SHELL - This is an important entry in .fisproperties file. This entry points to command shell for the target platform. Under Unix it defaults to CSH. Under Windows you have to set it to cmd or command for Windows 2000/XP series and Windows 98/Me series respectively.