[PlanetCCRMA] Installing non-Planet app's

[M P Smoak]

What follows is perhaps too long, too wordy.  But I'd like
some advice on installing non-Planet app's.  

In the thread "Nofrills window manager, I wrote:
> Fabio Barbon wrote:
> > Andres Cabrera wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > I'm wondering how I can set up (or find information for
> > > setting up) a no frills window manager with my planet
> > > CCRMA FC1 installation (please remember that I am pretty
> > > new to linux...). I can only choose between gnome and kde.
> > > Would doing that improve realtime audio (or video- as in
> > > pd gem) performance significantly?
>
> The question "Would doing that improve realtime audio" ...
> is one I'd like to know more about.  I'm using KDE, liking it
> very much and wondering how to make it lean or switch if I
> need to.  How dependent is the need on processor? on memory?
>
> > http://www.windowmaker.org/
> >
> > (just install rpm and choose it under "session types" in gdm
> > login window)
>
> Also the business of installing rpm's when using Planet is not
> clear to me and I was just about to ask about installing
> non-Planet rpms when I saw this thread.  But I'll ask about
> that in a new thread.
>
> Marv

I've got rh9/Planetccrma going and starting to make real progress
using the system for making and studying music.  Thanks, Nando  
and all.  I'm glad to hear that the upgrade process from rh9 to
to fc1 to fc2 work smoothly. (Going from rh8 to rh9 I kept rh8  
by repartitioning.)  

Now I need to install some things that are not a part of Planet.
And need to understand how to do it and not break Planet.  For 
example APLX.  (yes I'm an apl guy; yes I can read it and
touch type its character set. been doing it since about 1969)

APLX is available for MSWindows, MAC and Linux.  Their page
	http://www.microapl.co.uk/apl/aplx_support.html
discusses the Linux versions that are known to work; both rh9 
and fc1 are listed.  I've read and understand what they say 
about potential problems and solutions.  Well written page, I 
think.  Then from the APLX download page:
....
 To install: 
GUnzip the downloaded file 
    gunzip aplx_linux_pe_11.tgz
Untar the resulting tar file 
    tar -xvf aplx_linux_pe_11.tar
 This creates a directory "APLXLinux1.1" containing all the 
installation files. 
Change to the new directory 
    cd APLXLinux1.1
Read through the installation notes in "install.txt", then run 
the installer: 
    ./setup.sh
....
 
I've downloaded it and installed it.  And it appears to work  
fine. Imports my old files from IBM APL2 and does the calc's
as expected.  (Maybe my old win3.1 machine can finally retire.)

And it doesn't appear that I've hurt Planet.  But I sure wish 
I knew that.  Any advice/tutoring you can give me will be
greatly appreciated.  (And I'd bet I'm not the only Planet user
that has this concern/fear.)  I guess that if I upgrade to fc1,
the aplx install would survive but if I go with a repartion/
fresh install of fc1, I'd have to move or reinstall aplx.

Again thanks; I'll be installing R next,
Marv

ps Did you know Stanley Jordan is an apl guy? He gave a very nice 
presentation of using apl for music at the APL92 conference at
Stanford that year.