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getting started
Welcome! Thank you for your interest in gro. The software is currently under development, and you should anticipate many changes over the coming months. However, the beta releases are quite usable and we would love it if you tried them out. Start with the installation section, and the go through the tutorial. Look carefully at the examples, and try making small changes to them to see if you understand how they work.
Thank you and have fun!
Right now, gro works on with Mac and Windows. Read the relevant subsection below for details on getting gro to work on your system.
The source code is also available. See the doc directory on github for details on how to compile it.
Requirements: Mac OS X Version 10.5.8 or later.
You should receive gro in a compressed disk image named something like gro_mac_beta.2.dmg. Double clicking should mount the disk image as though it were a disk, and you should see the gro program, two folders named "examples" and "include", respectively, the readme.txt file, and a changelog.txt file.
To start gro, you can simply double click the gro icon and it should start right up. If you would like to install gro more permanently on your computer, then (a) make a directory called "gro" in your home folder (or anywhere you want), and (b) copy the contents of the disk image into that folder. Then, open the folder and drag the gro icon onto your taskbar. You can then unmount and delete the .dmg file.
Note: It is important that the gro application be kept in the folder with the "include" directory, as this is how gro knows where to find its configuration files. You can keep the examples directory with gro as well or put it somewhere else.
Once gro is started, you can open the examples by clicking on the "Open" icon and choosing, for example, gfp.gro and then clicking "Start". It should gro a micro-colony of 1000 or so cells and then stop.
To edit gro programs, or write your own, you will need to open them in an editor. Which editor you use is up to you: gro does not have an editor associated with it. Eric uses Aquamacs. You might try TextEdit, Sublime, Atom, or, if you have it installed, the Dashcode editor is nice. In any case, try editing the example programs to see what happens. You will have to choose Reload from the menu after each change. You can keep your gro programs in the examples directory or anywhere else you want to.
You should receive gro in a compressed zip file named something like gro_win_beta.2.zip. Save it on your Desktop or Downloads folder, then right click and choose "Extract All ..." which should create a directory called gro_win_beta.2. In this directory should be the gro program, two folders named "examples" and "include", respectively, the readme.txt file, and a changelog.txt file.
To start gro, you can simply double click the gro icon and it should start right up. To see something happen, click on the "Open" icon and choose, for example, gfp.gro and then click "Start". It should gro a micro-colony of 1000 or so cells and then stop
Note: It is important that the gro application be kept in the folder with the "include" directory as this is how gro knows where to find its configuration files. You can keep the examples directory with gro as well or move it whatever you see fit.
To edit gro programs, use a UNIX friendly editor. In particular, Notepad and Write will not work for editing .gro files, because they use a Windows-specific text encoding. A good choice for Windows is Notepad++, which you can install for free!. Or use TextPad and be sure to save your files in a UNIX/ANSI format.
When you write your own program, you can put it in the examples directory or anywhere else you want.