Tutorial Stage 1: Running HOM for the first time

1. Download HOM. Go to the download page, and follow the instructions to download the 'HOM.jar' file. Save this file it somewhere on your computer's hard drive. It should be approximately 1.7 MB in size.
2. Locate the file on your computer and run it. On Windows, double click the icon. This should run the program. If it works, you can simply create a link to the 'HOM.jar' file on your desktop or in a menu. If the program doesn't run, read on.
3. If executing the Jar file started 'Winzip' or 'WinRAR' or another program, you will need to change the associations for Jar files. The simplest way to do this is to re-install Java. The link for this can be found on the download page. If you would rather change the associations yourself, you will need to follow the instructions for your operating system, and use the command line below as the program to associate Jar files with. If you don't want to use associations at all, you can just use the command line to run HOM.jar, as detailed below.
4. If your operating system tells you that it does not know how to open '.jar' files, this usually means Java is not installed on your system. That is, you need a version of the 'Java Run-Time Environment', also known as the JRE, or a Java Virtual Machine, or a JVM. Install the latest Java as above.
5. If you have installed the latest version of Java and HOM still does not run, something else may be wrong with the setup. Try installing an older version of Java, in particular try the Java 1.4.2 JRE (click on the 'manual selection' link on the download page). This version is a smaller download, simpler, and seems to work in some instances where the newer ones don't.
6. Running from the command line: Go to the directory containing HOM.jar, and try typing at the command line:
   java -jar HOM.jar
   If this gives you an error saying 'java' is not found, you should check your system path environment variable (usually viewed using echo $PATH or echo %PATH% or set PATH) includes the JRE/bin directory. If not, locate the file 'java.exe' on your system - this is usually in a folder with the name jre???/bin - and add it to your path following your operating system's instructions, e.g. set PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/jre142/bin or set PATH=%PATH%;c:\java\jre1.4.2\bin
7. If all these methods should fail to get HOM running, please contact the author, stating your operating system, any error messages you get. It is quite possible there is a bug in the program, so please be patient, as I haven't had time to test the program on operating systems other than Windows! Thank you.