Welcome to the home of Blox!

Instructions:

1. Download the java run time environment (jre) for your given operating system (if you have previous installed the jre, you should first uninstall the previous version):

Silicon Graphics

2. Download the blox.jar file into the …/lib/ext directory (a subdirectory of where you just placed the jre.

3. There are two ways you can run java…as a “Server VM” or as a “Client VM”. The “Server” option works better if you are performing the same operation over and over. To read more, go to The Java Hotspot Pages.

a) If you have Windows: Download blox.bat and bloxs.bat and put in the same directory as the blox.jar file. To run blox using the Client VM, double click on blox.bat, to run blox using the Server VM, double click on bloxs.bat

b) b) If you have Unix: i) Download blox.tar and put in the same directory as the blox.jar file. ii) Type “tar –xvf blox.tar” to extract the blox and bloxs files. iii) Move the both files into the bin subdirectory (under the JRE). iv) Edit the your .cshrc file and add this directory to your path variable as well as setting the BLOX variable to this directory (e.g., setenv BLOX /home/user/j2re1_3_0beta/lib/ext/bin). vi) To run blox using the Client VM, type “blox”, to run blox using the Server VM, type “bloxs”.

4. Figure out how much memory (RAM) your system has in megabytes. Subtract 48 from this number. Now edit the blox.bat(or blox) file using a text editor and change the number 100 in the file to the number you just calculated. (This number appears twice in the file). BE CAREFUL NOT TO CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE IN THE FILE.

5. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is a free program available from http://www.adobe.com

6. The first time you run blox, you need to tell it where you installed the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Select properties/blox/acrobat reader location, and select the appropriate directory.

7. Congratulations! You are done.

If you have questions, please e-mail patr@jhmi.edu or vcalhoun@jhu.edu