Skip to content

Installation

Link 3.0 is included with Dyalog version 18.2 or later.

Note

For Dyalog to automatically update workspace contents due to file changes requires Microsoft .NET.

The .NET Framework is included with Microsoft windows. For other platforms, .NET can be downloaded from dotnet.microsoft.com/download.

To find out which versions are supported, see section 2.1 of the .NET Core Interface Guide and under the heading "Prerequisites" in chapter 1 of the Dyalog for Microsoft Windows .NET Framework Interface Guide.

The instructions on this page only apply if you want to:

  • Use Link 3.0 with Dyalog version 18.0 (in place of Link 2.0).
  • Participate in testing pre-releases of Link.
  • Use a different version than that which is distributed with Dyalog APL.

If you use a non-standard Dyalog session (.dse file), contact support@dyalog.com for guidance on enabling Link.

Link is maintained as an open source project at github.com/dyalog/link.

Start by downloading the latest release from github.com/Dyalog/link/releases and extracting the subfolder called StartupSession. This folder contains the code required to run Link.

If you have the necessary permissions, you can OVERWRITE the installed version of Link by replacing the StartupSession folder that already exists in the main Dyalog program folder with the downloaded folder.

If you do not have permission to partially overwrite the Dyalog installation, you can keep the code outside the main program folder. You will need to declare the location of the folder by setting the DYALOGSTARTUPSE parameter. You can add it to the command line when you start APL, but it is probably easier to use one of the following alternatives:

  • Set the DYALOGSTARTUPSE environment variable to point to the StartupSession folder.

  • Update the configuration file (or the Windows registry) , to set the parameter there. Typically, you would edit ~/.dyalog/dyalog.config to make the change for all versions, or a specific file such as ~/.dyalog/dyalog.180U64.dcfg for a specific version, to include the line: 

        `DYALOGSTARTUPSE: "/Users/mkrom/link/StartupSession"`

If you are using Dyalog version 18.0, you will also need to update the user command file used to invoke Link user commands. This only needs to be done once, because the new user command file is designed to pick user command definitions up from the current copy of Link.

The user command file is SALT/spice/Link.dyalog. If you have not done a complete checkout or clone of the repository, you will need to download this file from GitHub, as it is not included in the normal release package file.

  • If you have permission, you can overwrite the installed version of the Link user commands by copying the file into $DYALOG/SALT/spice/Link.dyalog.

  • Alternatively you can place a copy of the file in your MyUCMDs folder. This will cause it to take priority over the installed copy. Under Linux or Mac, you may need to create the folder yourself, under Windows the installation of Dyalog APL should have created it for you.

You will need to restart Dyalog APL each time you update any of the files mentioned above.