Compiling from source

AI Sandbox is written in Java, with the source code hosted on GitHub. So to compile it you will need to:

1. Install a recent JDK (Java Development Kit) from Oracle or one of the OpenJDK distributions - you will need JDK version 21 or higher. Installation packages for various operating systems can be found:

   • The Adoptium Project from the Eclipse Foundation
   • Oracle Java
   • Microsoft OpenJDK build

2. Download (or checkout) the latest version of the source code from GitHub; use the “code” button to download.

3. Extract the directory structure to your hard drive.

4. Open a terminal / command prompt, change to the directory where you extracted the source, and type

./gradlew run

for Linux / Mac or

gradlew run

for Windows

Tips

• When compiling for the first time, Gradle will download the libraries needed to compile and run the application. This may take a while, but subsequent compilations will be faster.
• The compilation will include platform specific graphics libraries (for JavaFX) so will not be cross-platform.
• Making changes to the code is far easier with an IDE that supports Gradle projects. We recommend IntelliJ IDEA or Apache Netbeans.

Cross-compilation

Although the AI Sandbox can be run on any computer with an appropriate Java runtime, the distributions contain platform specific drivers for managing the main user interface (JavaFX). If you want to compile on one platform and create a distribution that can run on another, use the command:

./gradlew clean distZip -Denv=win

where the following platforms are recognised:

• win
• linux
• linux-aarch64
• mac
• osx
• osx-aarch64