Table of Contents

1. System Requirements
2. Building the QUANTA libraries
3. Building your own application
4. Support
5. Appendix A : Directory Structure
6. Appendix B : A note on 'pthreads' and 'windowsthreads'
7. Appendix C: Building the QUANTA libraries using Visual Studio 7.0 or Visual .NET
8. Appendix D: Instructions to install Quanta using the QuantaSetup installer

System Requirements

The networking modules of QUANTA were tested on Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP.
You will need Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 or a later version.

Building the QUANTA libraries

The process has 2 main steps.

1.Downloading the distribution into a working directory

a. Download the QUANTA_xxx file to a working directory (where xxx is the version number).

b. Extract all the contents of the file into your working directory.
If your working directory is
C:\QUANTA, then you will see the distribution in
C:\QUANTA\QUANTA_xxx. (where xxx is the version number of the distribution).

Note : A brief description of the directories in the distribution is available in Appendix A

Go to step 2 to build the QUANTA library.

2. Building the QUANTA libraries

a. Open the workspace QUANTA.dsw. You can find the workspace QUANTA.dsw in C:\QUANTA\QUANTA_X.X\WIN32\QUANTA\QUANTA.dsw.

Note: Advanced users, see Appendix B for a note on the two different thread libraries with which QUANTA libraries are built.

b. From the menu choose Build->Batch Build->Build.

The networking libraries are now ready for use. Go to the demo programs.

The demo programs are a set of sample programs located in the 'demos' sub-directory of the distribution.These demo programs are strictly for QUANTA's networking APIs. The demo programs exist in four directories under the demos sub-directory (db, network, misc, threads). A 'README' file in each directory (located in the 'docs' sub-directory) describes the demo programs. The demo programs are built automatically during Batch Build.

To Run the demos, you have to add the path to the pthread.dll file. If your current working directory is C:\QUANTA\QUANTA_X.X, you can set the path by doing the following steps

• Go to Start Menu ->Control Panel -> System. Choose Environment tab.
• Set Variable name as 'path'. Set Value = %path%;C:\QUANTA\QUANTA_X.X\WIN32\pthreads\bin

Note :see Appendix B to know about pthreads and windows threads

Look into each directory and use the README file to understand how the demos should be run.

You can create new applications with QUANTA.

Using Visual C++ IDE

1. Create a new project.
   
   
2. Go to Project Settings and click on the C/C++ tab.
   Select Preprocessor as the Category.

In the Preprocessor definitions textbox add:

 _WIN32_WINNT=0x0400(or higher)

This definition resolves the incompatibilities resulting from both winscok.h and winsock2.h being included when compiling with QUANTA. Files should include windows.h rather than directly including winsock2.h

In the Additional include directories textbox add :

C:\QUANTA\Win32\pthreads\include
(required only if you want to use pthreads)

C:\QUANTA\include

C:\QUANTA\WIN32\pthreads\lib 

(Note : C:\QUANTA is the deployment directory used in our example)

3. Go to Project Settings->Link->Category:Input->Object/Library Modules :
   add quanta.lib, pthread.lib (If you want to use pthreads).
   

   In the Additional library path textbox add :

   C:\QUANTA\WIN32\QUANTA\QUANTAlib\Release

   C:\QUANTA\WIN32\pthreads\lib 

4. Add all your other files to the project and build it.

   Note: If winsock libs are not part of your default setting, you also need to link with ws2_32.lib

If you have any problems, questions, or feedback please send email to cavern@evl.uic.edu

Appendix A : Directory Structure

The QUANTA distribution is organized into several sub directories.
Each sub directory is described below.

Appendix B: A note on 'pthreads'and 'windowsthreads'

The QUANTA libraries can be built with two different flavors for windows:
one uses 'pthreads'and the other uses the native windows threads. By default, the library is built using pthreads.

The pthread library is an open source project and is currently maintained by Cygnus.
An application built with the pthread version of QUANTA needs to execute pthreads.dll.
This file can be found in the same location as the pthread version of QUANTA
ie. C:\QUANTA\win32\pthreads\bin - where C:\QUANTA is the deployment directory described in
Building and Installing QUANTA Libraries Step 2

The pthread distribution is also available in the subdirectory WIN32. For more information visit http://sources.redhat.com/pthreads-win32

The native window threads is bundled alongwith the Windows operating system. If you would like to build QUANTA with windows threads then do the following steps.

1. Open the file QUANTAconfig_win32.hxx under the include/QUANTA sub-directory.
2. Change the line QUANTA_USE_PTHREADS to QUANTA_USE_WINDOWSTHREADS.
3. Select Build->Batch Build. Select all the projects and click on 'Build'

The QUANTA library built with native windows threads can be found in the
directory C:\QUANTA\win32\QUANTA\QUANTAlib\Release.

Appendix C: Building the QUANTA libraries using Visual Studio 7.0 or Visual .NET

Building the QUANTA library and demo programs

Open the workspace QUANTA.dsw. You can find the workspace QUANTA.dsw
in C:\QUANTA\QUANTA_X.X\WIN32\QUANTA\QUANTA.dsw.
If you are using Visual Studio 7.0 or Visual .NET, you may be prompted to modify the workspace to make it compatible with the new environment. Click 'Yes' on all the dialog boxes that follow.

Select Build->Batch Build. Select all the projects. Click on 'Build'.

The above steps should build the Quanta libraray and the demo programs.

Appendix D: Instructions on how to install Quanta using QuantaSetup Installer

Installing Quanta

Click on the link "QuantaSetup" on the download page. You will be prompted with two choices: 1. Open the file from the same location, 2. Save the file to the disk. You can choose either one of the options and click OK. The self-extracting installer will extract the necessary files and will run the setup program automatically. Follow, the instructions and finally, click on the Finish button to complete the installation process

Building the Quanta library

Click on the Windows Start Menu->All Programs->Quanta->Quanta Workspace.

Select Build->Batch Build->Build All.

The above steps should build the Quanta library and the demo programs.