Information on How to Download Lovelace

Lovelace can be downloaded and used `locally' (i.e. without an Internet connection). There are several steps involved in getting Lovelace installed. If you're looking for ease-of-use, I have a simple recommendation: buy the book instead.

The local version of Lovelace has some innate limitations:

  1. Lovelace will occasionally refer you to other resources outside this tutorial. Attempting to follow such references will fail unless you have a working connection to the Internet.
  2. Although I've tried to make it reasonable, there are still several steps involved in getting Lovelace up-and-running locally. People read screens more slowly than paper, there's more eyestrain, and you're still tethered to a computer. Given the amount of material involved in Lovelace, it's easier to buy the book.

I recommend using Lovelace through the WWW instead of using a local version unless your WWW connection is nonexistent, slow, or expensive. Even if you use the local version of Lovelace, I'd like to hear from you when you finish it - please find a way to email me (at wheeler@ida.org) when you complete the course and let me know how you like it.

DO NOT make a local copy of Lovelace available to the web unless you're willing to update your copy within a month after the master copy has been updated. There are already several sites providing updated versions of Lovelace; the web does not need obsolete sites to confuse people.

If, after all this, you decide to install a local version, I suggest that you use the form below to receive automated email notifications of changes to Lovelace.

To receive an email message whenever Lovelace is updated, please enter your e-mail address below and press the "Register" button below. This will register you with the URL-minder service. This facility will only work if you have a working connection to the Internet. Once you've registered, select the "Back" button on your browser to continue reading the installation instructions.

Your Internet e-mail address:


The text below describes how to download the files you'll need. Basically you'll need to download and install (1) the Lovelace data files and (2) a web browser. Some of you may already have a web browser, you can skip the latter step. After downloading the files you need, then read and apply the installation instructions. Don't worry about how long they both are; they're long because I'm trying to cover many different computer systems.

If you've decided that you want to download a local version of Lovelace, let me first take care of a common case: PCs running Windows.

If you're an IBM-PC user, you use Microsoft Windows (3.1, 95, NT, or better), and you don't have a "Web Browser", I've developed a special version of Lovelace that you might like. A "web browser" is a program you need to use Lovelace (Web browsers include the following programs: Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mosaic, Cello, and Lynx). For those of you who don't have a browser, I've developed a version of Lovelace that's been pre-integrated with Cello (a web browser). Cello isn't the best web browser, but it's free and easy to install. If you plan to use a web browser for other things I'd suggest you install a better browser than Cello, but if you're only going to view Lovelace then this will get you going a little faster (though not as nicely). You can download the Lovelace/Cello combination directly. You'll then need to "unzip" this file, as I explain below and in the installation instructions.

For everyone else choosing to download a local version of Lovelace, select the compression format and source from the options below, and save the file using your web browser's ``Save File'' command after downloading. Local versions of Lovelace are available in:

If you download the `zip' format but don't have an `unzip' program, you can download an `unzip' program from the Info-ZIP archives, which has software to unzip files as well as create zip files (including both a free implementation and the shareware pkzip/pkunzip programs). The Info-ZIP archives can be easily accessed via JPL's version of the Info-ZIP archives. The archives are also available (in a less-easily-used form) at UUNET and WUARCHIVE.

Other sources for Lovelace files include the Public Ada Library (PAL) copy of Lovelace and the ez2load version of Lovelace (you can read the ez2load README file for more about ez2load).

You can also get a local version of Lovelace by CD-ROM. One CD-ROM with Lovelace on it is the "Walnut Creek Ada CD-ROM" by Walnut Creek CD-ROM (of Walnut Creek, California). Its (United States) phone numbers are (800) 786-9907 or (510) 674-0783; you can also send email to them at "info@cdrom.com".

On Installing a Web Browser

Once you've installed Lovelace, which is essentially a set of data files, you'll need to install a program to read those data files. The kind of program you need is called a web browser or HTML browser.

On many systems you may already have a web browser, so you don't have to do anything more. Common web browsers include Netscape, Mosaic, Cello, Lynx, and DosLynx. If you don't have a web browser, you'll need to install one. Here are some some options:

Now that you've downloaded Lovelace (the data files) and a web browser, read and apply the installation instructions. Also, use the Lovelace form to receive automated email notifications of changes to Lovelace.

You can also:

This page was last modified on 5-October-1996.

David A. Wheeler (dwheeler@ida.org)