Surfer
Interactive Visualization of Algebraic Surfaces

developed for the touring exhibition IMAGINARY 2008 of Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach.
http://www.imaginary2008/


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Read this if you want to compile from source on a unix-like operating system
(Linux, FreeBsd, Mac OS X, Cygwin).

Before you can use Surfer, you have to install surf,
preferably the version shipped with this source, which supports partial rendering.

First compile and install surf, as described in the documentation for surf.

Next, issue these commands in the directory containing the source:

./configure
make
sudo make install

This will fail if you don't have the necessary libraries installed,
Surfer depends on Gtkmm 2.8, the corresponding package will be called something like
gtkmm2.4-dev or gtkmm-2.4-dev.

If you have problems compiling Surfer, you may try to ignore the makefile
and use the following command:
g++ -o surfer src/*.cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtkmm-2.4`


Compiling with multicore support:

If your compiler supports OpenMP *and* you use the version of surf shipped with Surfer,
then you should pass the options enabling OpenMP to the configure script.

Example:
g++ has support for OpenMP beginning with version 4.2
If you are using g++ then issue the following command

CXX="g++" CXXFLAGS="-fopenmp" ./configure

instead of ./configure as described above.

-----------------
CONFIGURING

After installation, run the program.
You will find a file .surfer in your home directory
(a file surfer in the installation directory if you are using windows)
where you can modify the following options

gallery=   path to gallery files for surf

surf=      the command to invoke surf

mencoder=  command to invoke mencoder, if you wish to create movies with surfer
ffmpeg=    command to invoke ffmpeg, if you wish to create movies with surfer

modified_surf=  To take advantage of multiple processors, we modified the source code
                for surf such that surf now supports the option "--clip_to". If you use
                a version of surf which does not support this option, set modified_surf=0.


COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
usage:
surfer [-f] [-h] [-i] [-s] [-V] [file]

where
       -f toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode
       -g hides the gallery
       -i hides the information for gallery entries
       -s small mode: no fullscreen, no gallery, no information
       -V verbose operation
       -t removes animation und multiple surfaces from user interface
       file is a surf or surfer script