UseTheSource

Psychtoolbox › PsychDocumentation

UseTheSource - How to access the Psychtoolbox source code.

If you are interested in the source code for the C language
modules of Psychtoolbox (i.e., the MEX file extensions
like Screen, WaitSecs, GetSecs, PsychHID, ...) then use the
following procedure.

The Psychtoolbox source code is stored in a Subversion code
management system. To download the source code:

1. Open a Unix terminal window on OS-X or Linux or a NT command
shell on M$-Windows.

2. Use the "svn" commandline tool to download source code. On
OS-X or Linux, the svn tool is usually stored in the
/usr/local/bin directory, you may want to add this to your
PATH. On Windows, the svn client should be already in your
%PATH%

3. The following command would download the current development branch of
the full PTB distribution into the subdirectory /Users/kleinerm/MyPTB :

svn checkout http://psychtoolbox-3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Psychtoolbox/ /Users/kleinerm/MyPTB/

This command would download the full 'beta' distribution instead,
which corresponds to the most recent official, tested, production release:

svn checkout http://psychtoolbox-3.googlecode.com/svn/beta/Psychtoolbox/ /Users/kleinerm/MyPTB/

Inside the /Users/kleinerm/MyPTB folder you would see the following
subfolders:

Psychtoolbox/ -- The regular Psychtoolbox folder.
managementools/ -- Miscellaneous scripts for managing PTB releases.
PsychSourceGL/ -- The C source code for Psychtoolbox.

Inside PsychSourceGL you will find everything you need to understand
or to modify Psychtoolbox inner working if you are brave and patient
enough ;-)

As already mentioned, the toolbox itself is split into multiple branches:

trunk - The code that is currently under development. May or may not

beta - Source code corresponding to the current 'beta' release, derived

If you type the command "PsychtoolboxVersion" in Matlab or Octave, it
will tell you the flavor (trunk or beta) and SVN revision number of
your currently installed PTB distribution. This allows you to locate
the corresponding code in the SVN repository.

Be aware that you can only download code from the repository. If
you want to participate in PTB's development you'll need write access
to the repository. Contact David Brainard or Mario Kleiner if you want
to apply for write access. Make yourself familiar with the Subversion
toolchain or with Git if you want to do serious work.

An even more recent view of current development can be found on GitHub,
where our master and experimental branches are hosted. If you intend
to contribute to C code development or other complex parts of the
software, we will require you to use git instead of Subversion and
you will work with the git repository at GitHub.

You can browse the source code and all development logs via a
web interface: http://code.google.com/p/psychtoolbox-3/source/list

For almost all source code, i.e., unless otherwise stated in the
source files themselves or accompanying documentation, the
MIT license applies. See the file License.txt in the Psychtoolbox
root folder for more details.

Components & Libraries which are not covered by the MIT license, but
other MIT compatible free software licenses will carry individual
descriptions of their licenses inside the source files or in
accompanying license files within the corresponding subfolders. Such
libraries are usually contained in the PsychSourceGL/Cohorts/
subdirectory of the distribution.

Good luck and "Use the source" (Master Yoda).