No written documentation building ns-3

[trevorhardy]

As of this writing, there is no written documentation on how to build ns-3. The YouTube video tutorial video Jeff did does have an example command line that may or may not be correct. As might be expected, this makes building ns-3 difficult.

[trevorhardy]

As of this writing, I was able to complete basic compilation of ns-3 successfully using the following:

HELICS branch: HELICS_2_0
ns-3 branch: HELICS_2_0
compiler: clang 4.2.1
boost: 1.68
OS: Mac 10.13.6

./waf configure --with-helics=/usr/local

If building ns-3 with python support more configure switches would be required; I don't know if we support the use of ns-3 as a python-based federate.

The examples in the ns-3 HELICS module did not work but @eberleim said he'd get those updated shortly.

[nightlark]

https://github.com/GMLC-TDC/helics-ns3/blob/master/README.md -- I think everything for the waf configure command should work for both the 1.x and 2.x version of the module.

[nightlark]

I got a CI build setup (https://dev.azure.com/HELICS-test/helics-ns3/_build?definitionId=1) that is scheduled to run nightly using the latest develop branch of HELICS + ns-3. The build should fail if there are any issues during the configuration step that prevent the HELICS module from being enabled (so if ns-3 upstream breaks finding Boost again, it will catch the change).