[ REQ 5217]: unix problem with geomview

[roseman at dimension4.math.uiowa.edu]

Perhaps this is not exactly a software problem--but here goes--.

I am having some problems running Geomview--the problems is on the  
Unix level of things.  Perhaps is has something to do with NeXTStep  
making things appear other than the really are.

Am puzzled, and welcome, solutions, suggestions, guessses, work  
arounds, things to try to get more info, etc.

I am trying to use Geomview in a calculus class I teach.  I want to  
be able to use Geomview (next week!) via Mathmatica (which is  
installed in the Lab).  They have already done their first geomview  
assignment.

Our calculus lab is a three room network of NextStep machines--of  
various kinds.  (This is a closed network--not connected to  
Internet.)

Basic setup--each machine is configured with the operating system on  
its local disk.  But student accounts and other files are exported  
via the network.  (The reason is that if there is a fileserver crash  
at least the machines can be used as stand alone machines using a  
generic account local to each machine.)

The reason I mention these details is that this is a somewhat unusual  
set up.  


Anyhow, the directory /LocalApps is a network directory and not local  
to each machine.  On the other hand, /usr, and thus /usr/local/bin is  
local to each machine.

So I have Geomview.app in /LocalApps and it works fine.  I think it  
is last year's version.  Double click on the icon and it works.

The problem is using geomview with Mathematca.  I ran the install  
script (in a number of diffent ways).  But I cannot get graphics sent  
from Mathatica and appear in a Geomview window.

It works fine on my machine in my office.

When I enter << Geomview.m in a Mma window  it seems to find the file  
and read it, but if I then try: Plot3d[x y, {x,-1,1}, {y,-1,1}],  
geomview never gets started. 


So here is some information:

in a shell window, I obtain the following information:

************************

Pen3> echo $PATH
//Unix/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sybase/bin://App 
s:/LocalApps:/NextApps:/NextAdmin:/NextDeveloper/Demos:.
Pen3> geomview
/usr/local/bin/geomview: /tmp/gv/bin/next/Geomview.app/Geomview: not  
found
Pen3> pwd
/usr/local/bin
Pen3> ls
anytooff*    bdy*         geomview*    medit2gv*    oogl2rib*     
togeomview*
anytoucd*    geomstuff*   math2oogl*   offconsol*   polymerge*    
ucdtooff*
Pen3> cat geomview
#! /bin/sh

# geomview shell script driver for the Next

GEOMVIEW_GVX=/tmp/gv/bin/next/Geomview.app/Geomview

case "$1" in
  -dbx)  dbx  $GEOMVIEW_GVX ;;
  -gdb)  gdb  $GEOMVIEW_GVX ;;
  -edge) edge $GEOMVIEW_GVX ;;
  *) exec $GEOMVIEW_GVX ${1+"$@"} ;;
esac
Pen3>  cd /LocalApps
Pen3> ls
.NextTrash/         bdy*                math2oogl*           
togeomview*
Geomview.app/       co-Xist.app/        medit2gv*           ucdtooff*
UserInstaller.app/  co-XistLinker.app/  offconsol*
anytooff*           geomstuff*          oogl2rib*
anytoucd*           geomview*           polymerge*

*********************************

Note: I have put extra copies of the binaries into /LocalApps since I  
wanted to make sure these were available over the net--I though that  
might help.

I don't understand why I can't find geomview when I appear to be in a  
directory containing it.  And I don't understand why geomview (the  
script) has the pathname that appears.  


But i seems like my "only" problem is finding a copy of the binaries  
that can be run.

D.