Kawa, the Java-based Scheme system

Node:Binary distribution, Next:Source distribution, Previous:Running Java, Up:Installation

### Installing and using the binary distribution

The binary release includes only the binary compiled `.class` versions of the same `.java` source files in the source release. It does not include any documentation, so you probably want the source release in addition to the binary release. The purpose of the binary release is just to save you time and trouble of compiling the sources.

The binary release depends on certain "Java 2" features, such as collections. If you have an older Java implementation (including JDK 1.1.x) you will need to get the source distribution.

The binary release comes as a `.jar` archive `kawa-1.7.jar`.

You can unzip the archive, or you can use it as is. Assuming the latter, copy the archive to some suitable location, such as `/usr/local/lib/kawa.jar`.

Then, before you can actually run Kawa, you need to set `CLASSPATH` so it includes the Kawa archive. On Unix, using a Bourne-style shell:

         CLASSPATH=/usr/local/lib/kawa.jar
         export CLASSPATH

On Windows you need to set `classpath` in a DOS console. For example:

         set classpath=\kawa\kawa-1.7.jar

Then to run Kawa do:

         java kawa.repl

To run Kawa in a fresh window, you can do:

         java kawa.repl -w