[ePNK product for Windows]

 
The ePNK
The ePNK is a platform for Petri net tools based on the PNML transfer format. The standard way of deploying the ePNK is as an extension for Eclipse (see overview).

 

The ePNK product: a stand-alone version for Windows
Due to some request at this year's Petri Net Conference in Newcastle, the ePNK is also deployed as a stand-alone version for the Windows platform now (based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, RCP) . This is called the ePNK product.

 

The ePNK product consumes a bit less disk space and starts up much faster (since only the part of Eclipse needs to be installed that is relevant for the ePNK). The version deployed here is equivalent to the ePNK version 0.9.2 as released for Eclipse Helios. It is deployed in two different configurations for Windows (Windows XP or higher):

  • If you have installed a Java Runtime Environment (JRE 6 or higher) on your Windows system, you can save some disk space by installing the ePNK product configuration that does not include a JRE: ePNK-0.9.2b.zip (ca. 50MB).

     

  • If you do not have installed a Java Runtime Environment (JRE 6 or higher), you need to install the fully self-contained configuration of the ePNK including a JRE: ePNK-0.9.2b+JRE6.zip (ca. 75MB).

If your never have heard of a "JRE", your probably need to install the second configuration (ePNK-0.9.2b+JRE6.zip).

 

In order to install either of these configurations of the ePNK product, download the respective zip-file and extract it to some directory on your Windows system. In the extracted folder "ePNK", you will find an executable file "ePNK.exe". Double-click on it to start the ePNK product. The first time you start the ePNK product, a workspace directory will be created in the same folder, which is where all the files you create in the ePNK resource browser will go. If you want, you can change that directory by the switch workspace feature once the ePNK is running.

 

For more details on how to use the ePNK, see the ePNK Manual (0.9.0). Note that with the ePNK product, you will miss the extension functionality of the ePNK (which probably is the most important feature of the ePNK) and you cannot develop anything on your own. You can use the ePNK as it is though. In particular, you can create, load, save, modify and print nets in the PNML format as defined in the ISO/IEC 15909-2 - and you can use the simple model-checker for P/T-nets.

 

Limited Support
Note that there is only a limited support for this ePNK product since the stand-alone version is not the main purpose of the ePNK - to the contrary. Since the ePNK product needs major parts of the eclipse IDE, which has not been designed for being part of a RCP product, some functionality that comes with the eclipse IDE might be a bit limited as compared to the ePNK when plugged into eclipse.

 

If you encounter some problems, please, feel free to let us know. But, we cannot promise to fix them quickly.

 

Known issues
Here is a list of known issues and problems with the current version (0.9.2) of the ePNK product.
  • 6. 8. 2011 (version 0.9.2): Problem markers (and the workspace) are not properly saved when the ePNK is shut down (exit) -- outdated problem markers might show up when the ePNK product is started again. To make sure that the problem markes on a PNML file are correct, you need to validate it again, after the ePNK is started again.

     

    This problem with version 0.9.2 is FIXED in version 0.9.2b (9. 8. 2011).

 

 

Ekkart Kindler (), August 5, 2011 (last change: December 12, 2012)