downloading Forms

[mbp]

Lee,
   Yes you can use tar to create an archive of a directory you don't
own, as long as you have permission to read it (which is the case with
the FORMS directory here). You just have to arrange for the tar file
to be written to a directory you do own, such as your home directory.
Use something like the following to pack up the forms directory on our
system:

    % cd /usr/local/src/grap/forms-2.0	# go to the forms dir
    % gnutar cvfZ ~/forms.tar.Z .	# tar up . into ~/forms.tar.Z
    % cd ~				# go home
    % ftp yourmachine.whatever.edu	# transfer forms.tar.Z back
    ...					#  to your machine
    ftp> binary
    ftp> put forms.tar.Z
    ftp> quit

Then on your end, after receiving the file forms.tar.Z, unpack it with

	% gnutar xvfZ forms.tar.Z

or, equivalently if you don't have gnutar,

	% uncompress < forms.tar.Z | tar xvopf -

The FORMS distribution is available from several sites on the
Internet; one that I know of right away is glaurung.physics.mcgill.ca.
The copy that we have has several bug fixes and modifications that we
have done ourselves, however, some of which are necessary for use with
geomview.  So it's probably a good idea to get our modified version
rather than the official distribution.  We're planning to package up
our modifications and distribute them but we haven't gotten around
to it yet.

--Mark