To install the package, just unpack it in your packages directory (usually ~/gap/pkg for local installation). To use polymaking, you need a working installation of the program polymake https://polymake.org. The package has been tested on linux and Mac OS X (10.4, 10.5 and 10.6). But it should be as platform independent as GAP and polymake.
The interaction with polymake is restricted to writing files and carrying out simple operations. These looked like
polymake file KEYWORD1 KEYWORD2 KEYWORD3
on the command line for polymake versions before 4. The keywords are polymake methods without arguments. Since polymake no longer supports this interface the polymaking package provides the script lib/pm_script_arg.pl to emulate this.
polymake ––script lib/pm_script_arg.pl KEYWORD1 KEYWORD2 KEYWORD3
Using custom scripts is not supported.
Every call to polymake will re-start the program anew. This causes considerable overhead. The number of calls to polymake is reduced by caching the results in the so-called PolymakeObject in GAP. As of polymaking version 0.8.0, old versions of polymake (i.e. versions before 2.7.9) are not supported anymore.
polymaking will try to guess the location of polymake. If this fails, a warning is issued at load time (InfoWarning level 1). Note that the guessing procedure is suppressed when POLYMAKE_COMMAND (3.2-1) is set manually (see 1.2-3).
setenv PATH ${PATH}:<your polymakepath>
The general rule is: If polymaking finds polymake by itself, there is nothing to worry about.
As polymaking uses the program polymake, it needs to know where this program lives. The communication with polymake is done by writing files for polymake and reading its output (as returned to standard output "the prompt"). Note that the interface does not read any polymake file.
‣ SetPolymakeDataDirectory( dir ) | ( method ) |
Sets the directory in which all polymake files are created to dir. The standard place for these files is a temporary directory generated when the package is loaded. This manipulates POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR (3.2-2).
‣ SetPolymakeCommand( command ) | ( method ) |
Sets the name for the polymake program to command. This manipulates POLYMAKE_COMMAND (3.2-1).
To permanently set the values of POLYMAKE_COMMAND (3.2-1), and POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR (3.2-2), add the lines
POLYMAKE_DATA_DIR:=Directory("/home/mypolymakedatadir");
POLYMAKE_COMMAND:=Filename(Directory("/home/mypolymakebindir/"),"polymake");
to your .gaprc file (see Reference: The gap.ini and gaprc files). Note that these have to be before the LoadPackage("polymaking"); line. Or you can change the values of the above variables by editing lib/environment.gi
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