ECF uses some features of boost C++ library (www.boost.org). To use ECF, a minimal boost installation (only header files, no compilation) is needed. After the boost source files are extracted, the ECF projects may be compiled (on Windows, check the boost directory location!).
NOTE: in Visual Studio projects included in the ECF, boost include directory is set to "C:\Program Files\boost\boost_1_64_0". If you installed to a different location (or use a newer boost version), change the directory accordingly (in project's Additional include directories).
Obtaining boost: the latest version can be downloaded from https://www.boost.org/users/download/. For linux packages, be sure to search for 'libboost-dev' package (e.g. 'sudo apt-get install libboost-dev').
In the main directory you can find a "VS" subdirectory which contains Visual Studio solution file ECF_lib.sln. Open it and just build the solution (release and/or debug version). The solution produces library ECF.lib (in either ./release or ./debug directory) which can be used to build examples and user projects. Each example has its "VS" subdirectory with a VS solution file that can be used to build either debug or release version (having previously built the ECF_lib project).
CMake project files ("CMakeLists.txt") are provided in the main directory for the ECF library, and in example subfolders for each example.
The ECF library and the examples can also be compiled with CLion, for which the project files are suplied in subdirectory .idea for each example.
Note: if you encounter CLion message "Error running 'Build': Cannot start process, the working directory '
Semi-automatic installation is available with this nifty little script (thanks to Jernej Makovsek), tested on Ubuntu.
Otherwise, standard installation procedure applies (you may need to chmod the 'configure' script beforehand to be able to execute it):
$ ./configure [ --prefix=DIR ] $ make $ make install
By default, the compiled libraries are installed in folder '/usr/local/lib', while the headers are installed in '/usr/local/include'.
You can specify a different installation folder by giving the option '--prefix=<PATH>' to the 'configure' script, e.g. --prefix=/home/someuser/ecf/.
Should any errors occurr, try reconfiguring the package by running aclocal, autoconf and automake (or just autoreconf -fi) before ./configure.
Each directory in /examples contains a Makefile used to build a specific example:
$ cd examples/GAonemax $ make g++ -Wall OneMaxEvalOp.cpp -c -o OneMaxEvalOp.o g++ -Wall main.cpp -c -o main.o g++ -Wall OneMaxEvalOp.o main.o -lecf -o onemax
If necessary, modify the Makefile to include the ECF installation library directory as the compilation flags (if not installed to the default system location), e.g.:
CFLAGS = $(WARN) -I/home/someuser/ecf/include LDFLAGS = $(WARN) -lecf -L/home/someuser/ecf/lib
Make sure libecf is installed and can be found by the linker (add the above installation library directory defined with ./configure to LD_LIBRARY_PATH if necessary, e.g. 'export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH').
Each example is started by calling its name and given parameters file (e.g. "./onemax parameters.txt"). The examples and parameters are explained in more detail in the Tutorial.