Wherever possible, Kleene users should install and use a pre-compiled binary distribution downloadable from this page. Such releases are available for OS X, 64-bit Linux, and 32-bit Linux.
Compiling/building Kleene from the source code is possible but still a bit too complicated. It is recommended only for experts.
kleene-mac-0.9.5.0.tar.gz is the current release for OS X. It was compiled on OS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite). Move the tarball (the .tar.gz file) to a convenient directory, e.g. ~/kleene/, and gunzip and de-tar it:
$ mv kleene-mac-0.9.5.0.tar.gz ~/kleene/
$ cd ~/kleene
$ gunzip *.gz
(this will create a file named kleene-mac-0.9.5.0.tar)
$ tar xvf *.tar
(this will create a directory named kleene-mac-0.9.5.0)
$ cd kleene-mac-0.9.5.0
$ ls
If this makes no sense to you, get some help from a friendly expert. The ls command will list a number of files, including README.install. Carefully follow the instructions in the README.install file, which is a plain text file.
Most computers today have 64-bit hardware. kleene-linux-64bit-0.9.5.0.tar.gz is the current release for 64-bit Linux. It was compiled under Linux Mint 17.2, 64-bit. After downloading, gunzipping and de-tarring the tarball, carefully follow the instructions in the README.install file.
If you have an older, 32-bit machine, kleene-linux-32bit-0.9.5.0.tar.gz is the current release for 32-bit Linux. It was compiled under Linux Mint 17.2, 32-bit. After downloading, gunzipping and de-tarring the tarball, carefully follow the instructions in the README.install file.
If you want to run Kleene within Windows, first install a virtual-machine framework such as VirtualBox, which is freely available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. Then create a new Linux VM (virtual machine, e.g., Linux Mint or Ubuntu), using either a 64-bit or 32-bit ISO file, within VirtualBox (or whatever virtual-machine framework you choose to use), and then install the appropriate version of Kleene-for-Linux inside your new Linux virtual machine.
Linux Mint ISO files are available (free) from http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php, and Ubuntu ISO files (also free) are available from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop. Many other flavors of Linux should work. Setting up a virtual machine inside VirtualBox is not rocket science, and there are a number of web pages that offer help, but if you're new to it all you may want to enlist a friendly expert for assistance.
kleene-0.9.5.0.pdf is the Kleene User Manual for release 0.9.5.0. It's currently over 300 pages.
If you create an interesting Kleene script, please consider donating it to the collection. I would also gladly list links to the websites of Kleene-based projects.
fst2java.tar.gz The experimental fst2java project converts Kleene FSMs, stored to file in a special XML format, into executable Java code. See the User Manual for instructions.
Kleene.kmap is a .kmap file that can (optionally) be used to enter Kleene code in the GUI. The .kmap file facilitates typing some Unicode characters used as operators, but Kleene always provides plain-ASCII equivalents. See the User Manual.
kleene_utf-8.vim is a keymap file that can (optionally) be used to edit Kleene scripts using the (g)vim editor. See the User Manual.
kleene-lang-dependencies-0.9.5.0.tar.gz. These libraries are needed only if you are trying to compile/build Kleene from the source code. This exercise is not recommended for most users.