2.4 Development Environment

As mentioned above, scripting in ns-3 is done in C++ or Python. As of ns-3.2, most of the ns-3 API is available in Python, but the models are written in C++ in either case. A working knowledge of C++ and object-oriented concepts is assumed in this document. We will take some time to review some of the more advanced concepts or possibly unfamiliar language features, idioms and design patterns as they appear. We don’t want this tutorial to devolve into a C++ tutorial, though, so we do expect a basic command of the language. There are an almost unimaginable number of sources of information on C++ available on the web or in print.

If you are new to C++, you may want to find a tutorial- or cookbook-based book or web site and work through at least the basic features of the language before proceeding. For instance, this tutorial.

The ns-3 system uses several components of the GNU “toolchain” for development. A software toolchain is the set of programming tools available in the given environment. For a quick review of what is included in the GNU toolchain see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_toolchain. ns-3 uses gcc, GNU binutils, and gdb. However, we do not use the GNU build system tools, neither make nor autotools. We use Waf for these functions.

Typically an ns-3 author will work in Linux or a Linux-like environment. For those running under Windows, there do exist environments which simulate the Linux environment to various degrees. The ns-3 project supports development in the Cygwin environment for these users. See http://www.cygwin.com/ for details on downloading (MinGW is presently not officially supported, although some of the project maintainers to work with it). Cygwin provides many of the popular Linux system commands. It can, however, sometimes be problematic due to the way it actually does its emulation, and sometimes interactions with other Windows software can cause problems.

If you do use Cygwin or MinGW; and use Logitech products, we will save you quite a bit of heartburn right off the bat and encourage you to take a look at the MinGW FAQ.

Search for “Logitech” and read the FAQ entry, “why does make often crash creating a sh.exe.stackdump file when I try to compile my source code.” Believe it or not, the Logitech Process Monitor insinuates itself into every DLL in the system when it is running. It can cause your Cygwin or MinGW DLLs to die in mysterious ways and often prevents debuggers from running. Beware of Logitech software when using Cygwin.

Another alternative to Cygwin is to install a virtual machine environment such as VMware server and install a Linux virtual machine.

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