VisualNetkit 1.0b
=================
Alessio Di Fazio, Paolo Minasi

PREREQUISITES
=============

The tool should compile successfully if you have a standard Linux build
environment.  The only requirement is to have a version of the Qt development
files that is at least as recent as 4.4. Debian distributions provide the
required files and utilities inside the libqt4-dev package.

HOW TO COMPILE
==============

To compile the application, enter the package root directory and run the script
`build.sh'. All the necessary steps should be automatically performed and a
binary executable should be placed inside the `bin/' subdirectory.  In order to
view all the available compilation options, run `build.sh -h'.

HOW TO RUN
==========

In order to launch VisualNetkit, run the script `bin/visualnetkit.sh'. This
automatically sets the environment variable VISUAL_NETKIT_PLUGINS to properly
locate plugins provided with the package.

PLUGINS
=======

VisualNetkit is based on a plugin architecture, where configuration settings
for specific aspects and services of a network are set up and managed by
separate pieces of code. Plugins can be dinamically associated to elements
(virtual machines, collision domains, links/interfaces) of the network being
edited, so that the corresponding features are enabled on those elements.

The choice to rely on plugins makes VisualNetkit easily extensible. For
example, support for the configuration of a particular daemon or service can be
introduced by developing an appropriate plugin. A skeleton of a `test' plugin
is provided in the `src/plugin_dev/' subdirectory.


Enjoy!