GeoInformatics.cc

The models described in this course will be developed using TerraME. TerraME is an extension of the Lua language. Some useful documents about TerraME:

• Experiences with a Socio-Environmental Modeling Course, //Modelling in Science Education and Learning//, 2014
• TerraME:An extensible toolbox for modelling nature-society interactions, //Environmental Modelling and Software//, 2013

Students should read the TerraME EMS and the MREL papers first, to get a sense of the language and what we are going to teach. The next step is to learn the basics of Lua, which is a simple and elegant programming language. Good references on Lua are:

• Lua - an extensible extension language, by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes, //Software: Practice & Experience//, 26 #6 (1996) 635–652.
• A one-pager introduction to Lua (very good!)
• The Lua book by Roberto Ierusalimschy (excellent!)
• Lua for TerraME: A Short Introduction

Please first install the TerraME software, available at the TerraME site. Please install TerraME in “C:\TerraME” in Windows, or in “/usr/local/terrame/” in a Mac or Linux machine. After you have installed TerraME, please follow the instructions below.

We suggest that you use ZeroBraneStudio as your programming environment for developing TerraME programs. In Windows, please install the program to C:\ZeroBraneStudio. In MAC and Linux, please use the default installation path.

After you download ZeroBraneStudio (ZBS), please do the following steps:

1. Configuration file: tells ZBS where to find the TerraME interpreter. Copy the user.lua configuration file to the “cfg” folder where you have installed ZBS. In Windows, it is usually “C:\ZeroBraneStudio\cfg”. In the MAC, the folder is “/Applications/ZeroBraneStudio.app/Contents/ZeroBraneStudio/cfg”. In Ubuntu, it is “/opt/zbstudio/cfg”.
2. Interpreter description file: tells ZBS how to use TerraME. Copy the terrame.lua interpreter description file to the “interpreters” folder where you have installed ZBS. In Windows, this folder is “C:\ZeroBraneStudio\interpreters”. In the MAC, it is “/Applications/ZeroBraneStudio.app/Contents/ZeroBraneStudio/interpreters”. In Ubuntu, it is /opt/zbstudio/interpreters.
3. Keyword description: tells ZBS to highlight both Lua and TerraME keywords. Copy the lua.lua keyword description file to the “spec” folder where you have installed ZeroBraneStudio. In Windows, this folder is “C:\ZeroBraneStudio\spec”.In the MAC, it is “/Applications/ZeroBraneStudio.app/Contents/ZeroBraneStudio/spec”. In Ubuntu, it is /opt/zbstudio/spec.
4. Optional: delete the other interpreters of ZeroBrane (Corona, Guideros, etc.) and leave only Lua, Lua5.2 and TerraME.

We have created an additional TerraME library to help with the course examples and exercises.

Install the Library for teaching TerraME in the directory <TerraME directory/contrib/courselib>. In Windows, this should be C:/TerraME/contrib/courselib. In Mac and Linux, this should be /usr/local/terrame/contrib/courselib. Create the subdirectory <TerraME directory/contrib/> is it does not already exist.