Install-CGAL-Bindings-for-python-and-java

To introduce how to install cgal-swig-bindings WITHOUT using pip install cgal-bindings

PS: Using pip install cgal-bindings to install cgal-bindings will fail as the current version of cgal is too new (CGAL 5.0.2) to support the binding from pip. Details in: CGAL/cgal-swig-bindings#153 (comment)

My computer is MacOS with python 2.7

1. Install CGAL liabray

I highly recommend using Homebrew:https://brew.sh/
Firstly, open mac terminal and type in brew install cgal.

2. Install CGAL-bindings

CGAL is designed for C++. To use it in Python or Java, we need CGAL-bindings to import CGAL in the programs.

In this step, using the commands listed in the bottom of this page: https://github.com/CGAL/cgal-swig-bindings/wiki/Installation, but changed a little, which goes

git clone https://github.com/cgal/cgal-swig-bindings
cd cgal-swig-bindings
mkdir build
mkdir build/CGAL-5.0_release
cd build/CGAL-5.0_release
cmake -DCGAL_DIR=/usr/lib/CGAL -DBUILD_JAVA=OFF -DPYTHON_OUTDIR_PREFIX=../../examples/python ../..
make -j 4
cd ../../examples/python
python test.py
... output of the example test.py...`

The above code is for Python usage. If Java, just copy the code in that link.

3. If missing library

When installing CGAL, you may receive errors indicating what packages are needed, something like You are missing gmp library. In my case, four packages: boost, cgal, gmp, mpfr. To handle them, using brew install <library name>(e.g. brew install gmp)

4. Customize project path

If you want to put the CGAL-bindings where rather than default path, here it is:

• git clone 'link' 'path' (be sure the path is "brand new" (non-exist before))
  e.g. git clone https://github.com/cgal/cgal-swig-bindings /Users/mike/Documents/CGAL-Project/cgal-bindings

• enter the folder
  cd /Users/mike/Documents/CGAL-Project/cgal-bindings

• make 'build' folder and enter it
  mkdir build/CGAL-5.0_release
cd build/CGAL-5.0_release

• cmake
  cmake -DCGAL_DIR=/usr/lib/CGAL -DBUILD_JAVA=OFF -DPYTHON_OUTDIR_PREFIX=../../examples/python/mike../..
  Note: for -DPYTHON_OUTDIR_PREFIX=../../examples/python/mike../.. this path is where you put your python file. After this, you will also see a CGAL package in folder mike

• make
  make -j 4
  Explaination for '-j': Specifies the number of jobs (commands) to run simultaneously. If there is more than one -j option, the last one is effective. If the -j option is given without an argument, make will not limit the number of jobs that can run simultaneously. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix_commands/make.htm

• you can run your python file in /Users/mike/Documents/CGAL-Project/cgal-bindings/examples/python/mike