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A Tour of NTL: Obtaining and Installing NTL for Windows
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<h1>
<p align=center>
A Tour of NTL: Obtaining and Installing NTL for Windows
and other Platforms
</p>
</h1>
<p> <hr> <p>
The WinNTL distribution of
NTL can be used on any Windows 95 or NT platform
(but not on Windows 3.11 or earlier).
Actually, there is nothing Windows-specific about WinNTL.
The source code is identical to the UNIX NTL distribution;
only the packaging is slightly different, and no assumptions
are made about the program development environment.
Thus, it should be possible to install WinNTL on
other operating systems (e.g., Macintosh, OS/2)
with little difficulty.
<p>
<b>MAC OSX Users:</b>
since MAC OSX is essentially just a (rather funny) flavor of Unix,
you will be much better served using the
<a href="tour-unix.html">Unix distribution</a>.
<p>
<b>
Obtaining and unpacking NTL.
</b>
<p>
To obtain the source code and documentation for NTL,
<a href="http://www.shoup.net/ntl/download.html">
download <tt>WinNTL-xxx.zip</tt></a>.
Here, "<tt>xxx</tt>" is the current version number.
Then <tt>unzip</tt> this file into a directory (folder).
This will unpack everything into a directory called "<tt>WinNTL-xxx</tt>".
Inside this directory, you will find several directories.
<p>
<ul>
<li>
The directory "<tt>doc</tt>" contains all of NTL's documentation,
including this "tour" ("<tt>tour.html</tt>")
and the "<tt>.txt</tt>" files explaining each module,
which can be accessed directly, or through the "tour".
<p>
<li>
The directory "<tt>src</tt>"
contains all of the source files for the library,
all with "<tt>.cpp</tt>" extensions.
The file "<tt>lip.cpp</tt>" can be compiled as a C source file
(this can sometimes yield a marginal performance gain).
<p>
<li>
The directory "<tt>include</tt>" contains a single directory called
"<tt>NTL</tt>",
and the latter contains all of the "<tt>.h</tt>" files.
</ul>
<p>
<b>
Platform dependent macros.
</b>
<p>
In directory "<tt>include/NTL</tt>" there is a file called
"<tt>mach_desc.h</tt>",
which contains all of the platform-dependent macro definitions.
The default settings should be correct for any x86- or Pentium-based
system running Windows; however, the correct definitions
can depend on the compiler and run-time environment.
Therefore, to be on the safe side,
you might consider compiling and running the program <tt>MakeDesc</tt>,
whose source files are in directory "<tt>MakeDesc</tt>".
This program will
dynamically build
a correct "<tt>mach_desc.h</tt>" for your platform (processor, compiler,
run-time environment).
To get accurate results,
you must compile this program using the level of optimization
(or higher) that you will use for NTL.
The program will print some diagnostics to the screen,
and create the file "<tt>mach_desc.h</tt>" (in the current
directory, and not in the "<tt>include/NTL</tt>" directory,
where it needs to go).
<p>
<b>
Configuration flags.
</b>
<p>
Also in directory "<tt>include/NTL</tt>" is a file called "<tt>config.h</tt>".
You can edit this file to override some of NTL's default options
for <i>basic configuration</i> and <i>performance</i>.
<p>
<dl>
<dt>
<i>Basic configuration options.</i>
<dd>
Most of the these flags are rather esoteric and can be safely
ignored.
<p>
One exception to this is the <tt>NTL_STD_CXX</tt> flag
(or perhaps just the <tt>NTL_PSTD_NNS</tt> flag) which
you will want to unset if your compiler is too old
to handle it.
<a href="tour-stdcxx.html">Go here</a> for details.
<p>
Another exception are the flags to use GMP for potentially
faster long integer arithmetic.
See the <a href="tour-gmp.html">GMP</a> section for more details.
Note that getting GMP to run on Windows is a pain in the neck.
If you really want to use GMP, use Unix or Linux!
<p>
<dt>
<i>Performance options.</i>
<dd>
These flags let you fine tune for best performance.
(If you were using Unix, you could run a script that
automatically selects the best settings for your platform.)
<p>
<i>TIP for Pentium platforms:</i>
<ul>
<li>
Users running
on a Pentium, or other x86-like processor,
will almost surely want to set the <tt>NTL_LONG_LONG</tt> flag,
or possibly the <tt>NTL_AVOID_FLOAT</tt> flag, in file <tt>config.h</tt>
to get the best performance for long integer arithmetic.
If you set either of these flags, you should also set the
<tt>NTL_TBL_REM</tt> flag as well, to get the best
performance for <tt>ZZ_pX</tt> arithmetic.
You might also want to set the <tt>NTL_SPMM_ULL</tt> or <tt>NTL_SMPP_UL</tt>
flags.
<li>
These flags can be useful on other platforms as well,
especially on processors with slow int/float conversion.
<li>
The best thing is to experiment, and compile and run program <tt>QuickTest</tt>
to see the impact on the running time of various basic operations.
</ul>
</dl>
<p>
Note that the file "<tt>def_config.h</tt>"
contains a backup copy of the original <tt>config.h</tt> file.
<p>
<b>
Test programs.
</b>
<p>
The directory "<tt>tests</tt>" contains several test programs.
For each program <tt>FooTest</tt>, there is a source file
"<tt>FooTest.cpp</tt>", and optionally two files
"<tt>FooTestIn</tt>" and "<tt>FooTestOut</tt>".
If the latter exist, then the program should be run with
the "<tt>FooTestIn</tt>" as standard input;
correct output (printed to standard output) should match
the contents of "<tt>FooTestOut</tt>" exactly;
note that these programs also print diagnostic output on the screen
(through standard error output).
<p>
<b>
Timing functions.
</b>
<p>
The directory "<tt>GetTime</tt>" contains several alternative
definitions of the <tt>GetTime()</tt> function.
The file "<tt>GetTime.cpp</tt>" in the "<tt>src</tt>" directory should be OK,
but your compiler might like one of the definitions in
the directory "<tt>GetTime</tt>" better.
<p>
<b>
Other tools.
</b>
<p>
The directory "<tt>misc</tt>" contains a program <tt>newnames.cpp</tt>
to help make the
transition to NTL version 3.5 from earlier versions of NTL.
See the <a href="tour-changes.html">changes</a> section for more details.
It also contains the programs <tt>gen_lip_gmp_aux.cpp</tt>
and <tt>gen_gmp_aux.cpp</tt> that automatically generate
the auxilliary files needed when using NTL with GMP.
You will have to look at the makefile in the Unix distribution
to see how to use these.
<p>
<b>
Compiling NTL.
</b>
<p>
Since there are a number of incompatible compilers and program development
environments available for Windows, no attempt has been made to
provide automatic tools for building and testing,
as is done for the Unix distribution.
Nevertheless,
it should be straightforward to install NTL (even if it involves a bit of
pointing and clicking).
First, compile all of the files in "<tt>src</tt>", and create a static library.
Make sure the compiler knows where to find NTL's include files
(directory "<tt>include</tt>" and <i>not</i> "<tt>include/NTL</tt>")
Then, to compile a program using the library,
make sure the compiler knows about the library and the directory
of NTL's include files.
In any case, if you want to do any serious computations,
you will certainly want to compile everything with your
compiler's code optimizer on.
<p>
For the benefit of those who must use Microsoft Visual C++ on Windows,
here are some steps for compiling and using NTL.
These steps work with MSVC++ v6.
While these steps seem to do the job,
there may be other steps that work better.
The following steps may be used to build the library,
and to build and run program <tt>QuickTest</tt>, as a simple
<i>console application</i>, using the library.
The instructions assume you have already
unzipped NTL into a directory <tt>c:\mystuff</tt>,
and are running the MSVC++ Development Studio.
<p>
I hope these instructions make some sense:
I don't know a good language for accuratly describing the
particular pointing an clicking steps.
<p>
<pre>
File -> New -> Projects
project name: ntl
location[default]: c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ntl
Click on Win32 static library
Click on OK
pre-compiled headers[default]: no
MFC support[default]: no
Click on Finish
Click on OK
Project -> Add to Project -> Files
select all files in c:\mystuff\WinNTL-xxx\src and click on OK.
Project -> Settings -> C/C++
Category: Preprocessor.
Additional include directories: c:\mystuff\WinNTL-xxx\include.
Click on OK.
Build -> build ntl.lib
File -> New -> Projects -> Win32 Console Application
project name: test
location[default]: c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ntl
Click on Win32 Console Application
Click on OK
What kind of windows application...? [default]: An empty project
Click on Finish
Click on OK
Project -> Add to Project -> Files
select the file c:\mystuff\WinNTL-xxx\tests\QuickTest.cpp
Click on OK
Project -> Add to Project -> Files
select the file
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\MyProjects\ntl\Debug\ntl.lib
Note: one must select Files of type: Library Files (.lib) to make this
file visible in the pop-up window.
Click on OK
Project -> Settings -> C/C++
Category: Preprocessor.
Additional include directories: c:\mystuff\WinNTL-xxx\include.
Click on OK.
Build -> build test.exe
Build -> execute test.exe
</pre>
<p>
<b>
Further remarks.
</b>
<p>
<p>
<i>TIP:</i> When writing programs using NTL,
you should include files using the syntax
<pre>
#include <NTL/ZZ.h>
</pre>
and <i>not</i> using a backslash ("<tt>\</tt>") as a delimiter.
<p>
<i>TIP:</i> When writing <i>windows applications</i> using NTL
(as opposed to <i>console applications</i>) you might want to compile
your program with the <tt>NTL_NO_MIN_MAX</tt> macro defined.
This suppresses the declaration of several <tt>min</tt>
and <tt>max</tt> functions in file <tt>tools.h</tt> that conflict
with macro names in the MFC header files.
Do not attempt to build the library with this macro defined -- only
programs that use the library.
<p>
NTL has been successfully installed and tested
on Windows 95 platforms with both the
Microsoft and Borland compilers.
<p>
If you have installed the Unix tools from
<a href="http://www.cygnus.com">Cygnus</a>, then you can use the
<a href="tour-unix.html">Unix</a> distribution of NTL.
This distribution has been specially tailored to work smoothly
with Cygnus tools.
For many programmers,
this is a much more comfortable and reliable program development environment
than commercial systems like those from Microsoft and Borland.
And moreover, these Unix tools are <i>free</i>.
Of course, an even better approach is to install
<a href="http://www.linux.org">Linux</a> on your PC.
<p>
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