flowgorithm_linux

Installation instructions to use Flowgorithm on Linux / Ubuntu 20.04

According to Wikipedia

Flowgorithm is a graphical authoring tool which allows users to write and execute programs using flowcharts.

It is sometimes used in schools to introduce computer science. Unfortunately, it is available only for Windows, which is a problem for students using Linux or macOS. Luckily, using Wine and Wine-Mono, you can make it work. You need to use some commands in the terminal to make it happen. If you find errors or inaccuracies in the installation instructions below, please open an issue here on GitHub.

In short: Wine is a software layer that runs Windows applications and translates the calls from the Windows operating system to the Linux operating system. So you can run Window's exe files on Linux and it is fast enough to be used for videogames. Mono is the open source implementation of the proprietary .NET framework developed by Microsoft to create software applications. Devin Cook, the author of Flowgorithm, uses the .NET framework to make Flowgorithm. Wine-Mono is a software package to make Mono ready for Wine. So, by mixing together the three ingredients, Wine, Wine-Mono, and Flowgorithm, you have chances to run Flowgorithm on Linux, and most probably on other Unix-like operating systems too.

Installation instructions for Linux (Ubuntu 20.04)

1. Install wine to get several new commands in the terminal, like wine and wine64:

sudo apt install wine

2. Download wine-mono. At the time of writing, the latest version is 7.4.0, which you can find here:

https://dl.winehq.org/wine/wine-mono/7.4.0/

https://dl.winehq.org/wine/wine-mono/7.4.0/wine-mono-7.4.0-x86.msi

3. Install wine-mono

wine64 uninstaller

(then click on install and choose the file you just downloaded wine-mono-7.4.0-x86.msi, and press OK)

4. Download Flowgorithm. We used the Executable Only version because it does not require any installation, and the latest release v3.31. The Windows Installer version should work as well (untested). You can find the file at:

http://flowgorithm.org/download/index.html

5. Unzip the downloaded file Flowgorithm-exe-only.zip to get Flowgorithm.exe

  unzip Flowgorithm-exe-only.zip

6. Run Flowgorithm.exe via wine64

  wine64 Flowgorithm.exe

Et voilà:

Next time, you just just need to execute the last step to run Flowgorithm on Linux.

Emanuele & Sibilla

PS: apparently, following the same logic above, you can run Flowgorithm on macOS too.