======================================================================
The Internet Communications Engine
======================================================================

Ice is a modern alternative to object middleware such as CORBA or
COM/DCOM/COM+. It is easy to learn, yet provides a powerful network
infrastructure for demanding technical applications. It features an
object-oriented specification language, easy to use C++, Java, Python,
PHP, C#, and Visual Basic mappings, a highly efficient protocol,
asynchronous method invocation and dispatch, dynamic transport
plug-ins, TCP/IP and UDP/IP support, SSL-based security, a firewall
solution, and much more.

Ice is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License
(GPL) (see LICENSE file). Commercial licenses are available for
customers who wish to use Ice with proprietary products. Please
contact sales@zeroc.com for more information about licensing Ice.


======================================================================
About this distribution
======================================================================

This distribution is a binary release of Ice 2.1.0 for AIX 5.2, and
includes the following components:

- The Ice runtime, including executables for the Ice services, HTML
  documentation and Slice files.

- Run time libraries for C++ and Java. These libraries enable you to
  execute Ice applications.

- Tools and libraries for developing Ice applications.


======================================================================
Requirements
======================================================================

This binary distribution was compiled on AIX 5.2 using IBM VisualAge
version 6 with the April 2004 PTF.

The following binary RPMs, available from
http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/products/aixos/linux/ezinstall.html,
are required to use this distribution:

- bzip2-1.0.2-2.aix4.3.ppc.rpm
- expat-1.95.7-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm 
- openssl-0.9.7d-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm
- openssl-devel-0.9.7d-1.aix5.1.ppc.rpm (only required when
  building C++ applications)


Java
----

Ice for Java requires J2SE 1.4.2 or 1.5.0. Java for AIX is available
from IBM at http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/aix


======================================================================
Berkeley DB
======================================================================

This distribution includes the C++ and Java runtime for Berkeley DB
4.2.52. The C++ runtime was built using IBM VisualAge 6. The Berkeley
DB license is provided in the file THIRD_PARTY_LICENSE.


======================================================================
64 bit builds
======================================================================

This distribution only contains 32-bit binaries. If you need a 64-bit
version, you can download the Ice sources from the ZeroC web site at
http://www.zeroc.com/download.html and build Ice in 64-bit mode. See
the INSTALL.AIX file of the source distribution for more details.


======================================================================
Setting up your environment to use Ice
======================================================================


General
-------

The discussion below assumes you have defined the ICE_HOME variable
with the directory of your Ice installation.

In order to use Ice services and tools such as Slice translators, you
need to add $ICE_HOME/bin to your PATH and $ICE_HOME/lib to your
LIBPATH, as shown in the bash commands below:

$ export PATH=$ICE_HOME/bin:$PATH
$ export LIBPATH=$ICE_HOME/lib:$LIBPATH


C++
---

When compiling Ice for C++ programs, you must pass $ICE_HOME/include
to the compiler with the -I option, and $ICE_HOME/lib with the -L
option. Furthermore, a C++ program needs to link with at least libIce
and libIceUtil, so a typical link command would look like this:

$ xlC_r -o myprogram myprogram.o -L$ICE_HOME/lib -lIce -lIceUtil

Additional libraries are necessary if you are using an Ice service
such as IcePack or Glacier2.


Java
----

To use Ice for Java, you must add $ICE_HOME/lib/Ice.jar and
$ICE_HOME/lib/db.jar to your CLASSPATH, as shown below:

$ export CLASSPATH=$ICE_HOME/lib/Ice.jar:$ICE_HOME/lib/db.jar:$CLASSPATH


======================================================================
Demos and documentation
======================================================================

Sample programs are provided in the Ice-2.1.0-demos.tar.gz package,
which can be downloaded from the ZeroC web site at

http://www.zeroc.com/download.html

Please refer to the README.DEMOS file included in that package for
more information.

See doc/README.html for information on the documentation included with
this distribution.