What are libfsqca, acq, and Kirq?

libfsqca is a "software library" (a collection of reusable computer code) of the QCA algorithms. End users don't need to worry about this, except to understand that any software packages that use libfsqca will have similar capabilities and produce the same results. The advantage of developing a software library is that any bugfixes or improvements that we make to libfsqca will automatically propagate to the software packages that use it. There are two software packages that use libfsqca: acq and Kirq.

What are the differences between acq and Kirq? Which should I use?

If you're unsure as to which software program to download, download Kirq.

acq is designed to be used at the Unix commandline and comprises a suite of small, interrelated programs. Kirq is an integrated, fully graphical application that runs on Windows, OS X, and Unix.

Most people will want to install one of the binary packages of Kirq, which bundle the application together with its dependencies to provide a single installtion package.

I'm having trouble importing a data set. What should I do?

For plain text files, the most common problem is that there's a stray or missing field somewhere in your data file. In particular, check the end of the file for problems.

For Excel files, the most common problem is that the spreadsheet software has created extra, often blank, rows or columns. Check the spreadsheet for stray cells. Whitespace characters, such as or , can also create stray cells, so you should also try deleting "blank" rows and columns. You might also try exporting the dataset to CSV and importing that file.

If your file is .XLSX, try saving it as .XLS. (There is a bug in the .XLSX library that occasionally shows up.)

Can I mix fuzzy (calibrated) and non-fuzzy (uncalibrated) data in the same data set?

Yes. But the software will throw an error if you attempt to conduct an analysis on non-fuzzified data.

Kirq won't start on Windows 10.

Kirq generally runs fine on Windows 10, but a handful of users have reported problems. We have not been able to track down this bug, although it appears to affect only a limited number of Windows 10 installations. Unfortunately, we don't have any solution yet, except to try another machine/version of Windows or to run Kirq within a virtual machine.

When starting Kirq, I receive an error reporting "version `GLIBC_2.15' not found" or similar.

You're running an older version of glibc. Upgrading to a new version will resolve the problem. On Debian-based systems, you'll want to install/upgrade the libc6-dev package. On RedHat-based systems, it's glibc-devel.

When starting Kirq, I receive an error "Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA___gtk_widget_style_get: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed."

We've seen this error with Ubuntu 12.04. It appears to be a collision between Ubuntu's Unity interface and Qt4 (the GUI toolkit that Kirq uses). Resolve the problem by installing qt4-qtconfig and changing the "GUI Style" setting to anything other than "Desktop Settings" or "GTK+".

Kirq's main window doesn't look like it does in the screenshots.

This is the "Gtk-CRITICAL" error mentioned above. Install qt4-qtconfig and change the "GUI Style" setting.

I think I found a bug, what do I do?

We've done our best to make Kirq and acq bulletproof but no software is entirely bug free. If will help us to track down the bug if you can send us a description of the steps necessary to reproduce the problem. Please email Claude at <>. Be sure to identify which version of the software you're running and on what operating system. Please attach your data set to the email.

I have another question that's not answered here.

Documentation is available at the libfsqca website, http://grundrisse.org/qca/. You may also email Claude at <>.