The first thing you must do after obtaining a shiny new ACE source kit is to build it. And the first step in building ACE is to set up a proper config.h file and, if not building with Microsoft Visual Studio, set up the corresponding platform_macros.GNU file. Once you've done this a few times, it's relatively simple to do, and it's also fairly easy to customize the configuration for added features or site-specific build options.

The traditional ACE configuration steps are different from the configuration mechanism used by many other Open Source projects today (at least on non-Windows builds). Many projects use the GNU autotools to configure themselves. This mechanism is sometimes referred to as the "auto-configure" mechanism because the project supplies a configure script that automatically detects the settings required by the project. In this scheme, configuring the software package is reduced to running one script, which is very convenient and easy to use.

ACE's hand-configure scheme was invented in the early 1990s, before the GNU autotools were as good as they are now, and at a time when much of ACE's development sponsors used embedded and real-time systems that did not support the auto-configure approach. But over time the tools improved and the needs of ACE users evolved as well, making the autotools approach of enough value for Riverace to be sponsored to lead ACE's improved support for being autoconfigured. ACE 5.5 was the first ACE release with substantial support for being autoconfigured.

To use the autoconfigure scheme with ACE, use these steps:

1. Decompress and/or un-tar, un-zip, etc. the ACE source kit as usual.
2. cd ACE_wrappers
3. mkdir build
4. cd build
5. ../configure
6. make

Using the autoconfigure method to build ACE also makes building your applications easier and more reliable. We'll look more at this area next month.

Part of the difficulty with an Open Source Software project is that there's no official communication channel between the user base and companies such as Riverace that are here to serve you. So we're asking for your help to tell us what you like and don't like about ACE, and what would help you.

We've launched a survey to help you express your opinions and desires about ACE and services that would make ACE more helpful for you. You can take the survey anonymously (although if you'd like to discuss any part of the survey further, we need to know how to contact you). It's a fairly short survey and shouldn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes to complete.

The survey will only work in Internet Explorer. We apologize for this shortcoming, and ask that if you're a Firefox, Opera, etc. user, you fire up IE just this once and help us out. The survey is available at http://acehelp.riverace.com//LoginSurvey.asp?SurveyID=106

Thank you for your help!

Have you ever felt like screaming when faced with the ACE Reference Documentation? We can help sort it all out and get you programming with ACE like a pro! We've scheduled an open enrollment How to Use ACE Effectively class for October 17-20, 2006 in Waltham, MA (in the Boston area). This is a new expanded 4-day class, priced at US$1,700 including continental breakfast, snacks and lunch each day. Each attendee receives a copy of the class slides and a copy of The ACE Programmer's Guide (one of the authors, Steve Huston, will be teaching the class and would be happy to sign anyone's book.

For more information and to sign up, please click on the "October 17-20, 2006" link at our training page. You'll also find a PDF file for multiple enrollments and for payment other than by credit card. That form is also available here.

Reminder - the last day to sign up for this class is Wednesday, October 11! Time is running short!

Also, please note that attendees get a 10% savings on ACE Annual Support purchased when you pay for your class! Take advantage of this opportunity to make the most of your new ACE knowledge and keep the momentum going back at the office with quick answers and direction on your project's issues!

Riverace recently released two ACE fix kits: ACE 5.4f, the 5th release in the 5.4 series, and ACE 5.5a, the first fix kit release in the 5.5 series. With these releases, Riverace continues to enable developers to quickly develop C++ networked applications on today's leading-edge platforms without an ACE version upgrade.

All current Riverace support customers can download the new kits at no charge from the support Knowledge Base at http://acehelp.riverace.com, article 2 (for ACE 5.4f) or article 8 (for ACE 5.5a). All other users can download the kit for US$25 on Riverace's web site.