As xasy is written in the interactive scripting language
Python/TK, it requires Python
(http://www.python.org), the Python Imaging Library
(http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/), and the tkinter
package (included with Python under Microsoft Windows) be
installed. Fedora Linux users can either install
tkinter with the commands
yum install tkinter yum install tk-develor manually install the
tkinter, tix, tk,
and tk-devel packages.
Pictures are deconstructed into the PNG image format, which
supports full alpha channel transparency. Under Microsoft Windows,
this requires Python 2.6.2 and the Python Imaging Library:
http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.2/python-2.6.2.msi
http://effbot.org/downloads/PIL-1.1.7b1.win32-py2.6.exe.On
UNIX systems, place
http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.7b1.tar.gz in the
Asymptote source directory, and type (as the root user):
tar -zxf Imaging-1.1.7b1.tar.gz cd Imaging-1.1.7b1 python setup.py install
Alternatively, xasy can deconstruct pictures into the GIF
image format (not recommended as this is very slow), using white as the
transparent color. This requires the lines
import settings; xformat="gif";in the
Asymptote configuration file (see configuration file),
along with the ImageMagick (see convert) program.