Re: Octave on Mac OS X

[Ben Abbott]

On Dec 21, 2012, at 10:19 AM, Glenn Eychaner wrote:

> Having seen this come up AGAIN, I thought I'd point out that I have put 
> together a set of instructions and quick bash scripts for installing Octave 
> (and a bunch of other useful astronomy software) on Mac OS X (10.6, 10.7, 
> 10.8):
> 
> Mac Software Install Instructions
> Download
> 
> In theory, I could modify these scripts to create an Octave install just 
> about anywhere, by adding the proper "--prefix" invocations to the configure 
> stages of each piece.  (In fact, I did this during testing, building a 
> working Octave in my Downloads directory; I kind of wish I had left that in 
> the final version).  However, I haven't yet mastered 'install_name_tool', nor 
> found good documentation on the allowed indirection symbols, such as 
> '@executable_path', that would be needed to make a truly relocatable 
> application package.
> 
> Why didn't I use MacPorts? Because it annoys me when MacPorts insists on 
> building every package in the universe from the ground up; the computers this 
> was intended for have limited disk space.  I could have used Homebrew, I 
> suppose, but I haven't yet learned Ruby.  (It wouldn't have been that big a 
> hurdle; I know Perl, Python, bash, and several other scripting languages.)  I 
> just decided it would be faster to go the DIY route.
> 
> As stated in the instructions:
> Instructions for installing Octave using a package manager (such as MacPorts) 
> can be found at the Octave wiki. Much of this install script is based on the 
> manual installation notes provided there.
> So thanks to the Wiki contributors.
> 
> -G.

Glenn,

I've been working on an application bundle for MacOS X.

        http://wiki.octave.org/Create_a_MacOS_X_App_Bundle_Using_MacPorts

At the moment, it only runs on X86_64 based Macs.

The two big problems I see with it are (1) it isn't an Universal app, (2) 
everything is built with gcc 4.5.  Which means I must include gcc 4.5 and a lot 
of other stuff in the bundle in order to support compiling mex-files and 
oct-files.  I suspect both of these problems can be solved if the Xcode 
compilers are used with the gfortran patch provided by ATT Research.

        http://r.research.att.com/tools/

I often given some thought to how I might use that combination with Macports 
(I'd have to edit several port files), or setup a MacOS X guest in VBOX and use 
Homebrew (which uses the gfortran patch) in order to create a bundle that plays 
nice with Xcode.  My main hesitation is "time" and "will it work"?

Have you tried building everything using only Xcode with the gfortran patch 
provided by ATT Research?

Ben