Installing cinnamon on LMDE

Installs but does not run.... working on it... please comment if you've had better luck.

Follow instructions to upgrade to gnome-shell 3.2 here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=197&t=89327

Dependencies, even on the debian package, have the wrong package name, though some of these can be upgraded -- look for equivalent packages in your debian repos (in sid and experimental as well).

once you've upgraded everything you can, and have downloaded cinnamon run something like this:

sudo dpkg --ignore-depends=libecal1.2-10,libedataserver1.2-15,libgjs0c,libmozjs185-1.0,libpulse-mainloop-glib0,libpulse0 -i Downloads/cinnamon_1.1.2_amd64.deb

Hades simulation framework.

Taking a computer architecture class, I'm immersed regularly in something known as hades simulation framework.  Whether or not the name was intentional matters not.  This is like being in hell.  An interesting hell, but not a user friendly one.  If you don't know what it is, feel blessed.  If you do, you know there's very little info about troubleshooting on the internet.  Some quick and dirty notes:

If subdesigns don't show up properly, you can make your own .sym file and specify port locations, names, etc.  An example is below:

hades.symbols.BboxRectangle  0 0 4000 2600
hades.symbols.Rectangle  0 0 4000 2600
hades.symbols.InstanceLabel 150 450 1bit4to1MUX
hades.symbols.PortLabel 150 350 I0
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 0 200 I0
hades.symbols.PortLabel 150 950 I1
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 0 800 I1
hades.symbols.PortLabel 150 1550 I2
hades.symbols.PortLabel 150 2150 I3
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 0 2000 I3
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 0 1400 I2
hades.symbols.PortLabel 2800 350 S0
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 4000 200 S0
hades.symbols.PortLabel 2800 950 S1
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 4000 800 S1
hades.symbols.PortLabel 2800 1550 Output
hades.symbols.PortSymbol 4000 1400 Output

There are a number of reasons subdesigns will appear to be non functional or not respond in a larger design... I'll try to add to these as I find more:

1. Output named "Y" -- I've had success with this, but it seems to be unpredictable.  Avoid it.
2. Edits to subdesigns will sometimes disconnect ports in larger designs.  An easy way to test if this has happened is to move the subdesign in the larger design... wires should stay connected, if they don't, well, there you go... delete segments nearest your connections and then add segments to the original wire and reconnect.
3. In your subdesigns, set all your Ipins to default to 0.  Defaulting to undefined can cause problems in larger designs.
4. you can't depend on Ipin vectors to take default values.  Plan ahead on how to get data in.

I'm sure that there are more tips, but the semester is over and hades is slowly seeping out of mind.  However, if you've stumbled across this and are knee deep in hades issues, go ahead and send an email, maybe i can help.