Quick Start

Download

To try Matrex, first you need to download it.
Go directly to the Matrex package download page or read more about it.

Choose the version for your operating system and download it:

1. matrex_2_0_win32.jar for Windows (tested on XP)
2. matrex_2_0_linux_gtk.jar for Linux, using GTK
3. matrex_2_0_macosx_x86_64.app.dmg  for MacOSX 64 bits
   
4. matrex_2_0_generic.jar for other architectures

In the case of MacOSX what you download is an application bundle. It should just be needed to download the file and double-click on it to install it to the desktop.
In the other cases the file you download is an executable Jar file. You need to have JRE (Java runtime environment) installed to run it.
Generally you start the installation double-clicking on it.
If this does not work, open a command prompt or a shell, go to the directory where you downloaded the setup file, and write:

java -jar matrex_2_0_xxx.jar

where matrex_2_0_xxx.jar is the file you want to install.
This will start the IzPack setup for the Matrex product. You just need to follow the instructions.

Start

After you installed it, you can give it a try.
Double-click on the Matrex icon on your desktop.
If it does not work, go to the directory (folder) in which you installed Matrex and execute matrex_start.jar, double-clicking on it or, from a shell/command line, execute:

java -jar matrex_start.jar

(for the MacOSX it is  java -XstartOnFirstThread -jar matrex_start.jar)
If still it does not start, please verify that the "java" executable is in the global path.

The generic setup

If you installed the generic version, start matrex_start.jar from the shell/command line in the top Matrex directory. Matrex will try to install SWT from the internet.
Please answer to the question it asks (if you have a proxy, which proxy, from which site you want to install SWT).
If everything goes well, start Matrex once again. From this time the application should start as usual, displaying the GUI.

Use

Once it is started, what you do with it?

Well, first you can try some examples.
In the projects directory of the Matrex installation you can find these examples:

• sample a very simple example to show the main concepts of Matrex
• popcolorado a more complex project showing some statistics about the population of Colorado (includes charts and presentations)
• projection  a project showing a simple financial projection (includes charts and presentations)
• isql a project showing some applications of the iSQL (internal SQL) function template
• testchart a project showing different types of charts.
• directsearch a project demonstrating the Nelder Mead optimization.

To open these projects:

1. Menu File->Open project
2. In the open file-dialog go to the project's directory and open the file project.mxp

The project matrexdb, which tests the ability of Matrex to work with databases, is available separately.

Connect to a Matrex Server

To use remote projects in a Matrex Server, after you installed Matrex, you need to:

• Install the server, which has a separated installer included in the top directory of Matrex (matrex_2_0_server.jar)
• Start the RMI registry on the PC where the server is installed (rmiregistry)
  
• Open a command line/shell in the top server directory and run:
  
  java -jar matrex_server.jar
  
  
• Connect to the Matrex server from the Matrex Desktop using the File->Connect menu, using guest as userid and guest as password.
  

More on this in the server documentation and in the remote projects context help.

In Summary

To understand how to use Matrex, give a look:

•  to the context help
•  to the main documents in the documents page 
• or in the doc directory of the Matrex installation.

In case of doubts or problems, check the FAQ.