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Downloading and System Requirements

System requirements

Download Spire in a compressed tar file: spire-1.5.0.tar.gz

Installation

System requirements

Spire requires SPIDER version 11 or later.

Spire is written in Python, and requires Python version 2.3 or later. It uses the Tk/Tkinter graphics library (version 8.4 or later). Your system may already have these installed. Spire requires the following software packages:

Tcl/Tk8.4 (or later) www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk
Python2.3 (or later) www.python.org/download
Python megawidgets (Pmw) sourceforge.net/projects/pmw

Optional packages (especially for the graphical tools)

Python Imaging Library (PIL) www.pythonware.com/products/pil
Gnuplot.py gnuplot-py.sourceforge.net
Python Numeric sourceforge.net/project/numpy

If you have problems with the project database, you may need Berkeley DB system 4.0 from www.sleepycat.com/download/db/, but this is standard on most Unix systems.

Checking versions of Python and Tk

Python must be version 2.3 or later. To see if your system has the required version of Python, type "python". You will see something like the following 

% python
Python 2.3.3 (#8, May 25 2004, 10:30:02) [C] on irix6
If the Python version is 2.3 or later, it will work with Spire. Otherwise you need to upgrade Python.

Next, check the version of Tk. At the Python prompt, import the Tkinter module, then check the version: 

% python
Python 2.3.3 (#8, May 25 2004, 10:30:02) [C] on irix6
>>> import Tkinter
>>> Tkinter.TkVersion
8.4000000000000004

>>> (Ctrl-D exits)
Tkinter version 8.4 or later is acceptable, otherwise upgrade your Tcl/Tk.

Downloading Spire

If you already have the other required packages installed, you can download the Spire Python package spire-1.5.tar.gz from the Spider download page, and follow the installation instructions.

Installing Spire

installation instructions