Operating system

[Frank]

I am running Windows XP both at home and at work.

[Bruno Amaral]

Frank Sorry for the delay.

I have been doing a bit of research on what it takes to install python on windows XP. All links point to here http://www.activestate.com/activepython/ but let me take it from the top.

imagining that you have not taken any steps towards installing urlnet, you will first need to install python itself on both machines.

http://www.activestate.com/activepython/ seems to be a good solution for windows xp.

after it is installed, you will have to follow the instructions for urlnet. Dale as a thorough documentation on how to do this : http://code.google.com/p/urlnet-python-library/source/browse/trunk/readme.txt

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1.1    UNZIP THE DISTRIBUTION

Unzip the distribution file to a location of your choice. It will create a
tree with the following structure.

urlnet-v0.82
    urlnet
    examples
    doc
conf

The version number in the name of the root directory may be different from
what is shown here.

1.2    COPY THE LIBRARY DIRECTORY TO YOUR PYTHON INSTALLATION'S
    LIB/SITE-PACKAGES DIRECTORY

The directory referred to here is the urlnet subdirectory under the
urlnet-v1.0 directory, which in turn is found under wherever you unzipped
the distribution file. You can actually put it anywhere in the Python path
(possibly found in the PYTHONPATH environment variable, or in Unix and Linux,
by implication from the command 'which python'). The Python installation's
Lib/site-packages directory is the normal place to keep third-party modules,
which is why I am recommending it here.

1.3    UPDATE URLNET.CFG AND COPY TO A LOCATION ON THE EXECUTION PATH

Edit the urlnet.cfg file in the conf subdirectory to, at minimum, set the
workingDir vale to the default working directory of your choice.  You can
override this at will, but this eliminates the proliferation of calls to os.chdir. 

Other variables you may want to set now are your Technorati key, if you have one,
and your email address.  The email address is an optional but polite parameter
for the Web APIs of the National Center for Biomedical Informatics. Neither is
needed until you actually work with a Technorati or NCBI example, but if you are
editing, you might as well take care of it.

1.4    COPY THE EXAMPLE PROGRAMS TO A LOCATION OF YOUR CHOICE

The working directory you set in urlnet.cfg is a good starting point.
If you copy the examples there, you won't have to modify any code to override
the working directory.

1.5    TEST THE INSTALL

From your operating system shell's command line, enter the command

python urltree1.py

It should take a short while to run, after which you should find a small Pajek
project file named urltree1.paj in the working directory.
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as I said before, I do not know what steps you have already taken to install urlnet. So please, let me know how I can help you further.

all the best,
bruno