visualpython-users

[Visualpython-users] Mac OSX 10.4

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Aaron Titus has written up detailed instructions on how to compile and 
install VPython on Mac OSX 10.4, and these are now posted on the Mac 
download page at vpython.org. Thanks, Aaron! Here is what he says:

     The following instructions are for installing VPython on Mac OS 
10.4 (Tiger) using Fink 0.7.1. You will compile Fink and visual-py23, 
with its dependencies, from source. Installing the visual-py23 package, 
which depends on gcc3.1 and python23, took approximately 3 hours on my 
Titanium PowerBook G4.

     1. Follow the instructions for "users of the unstable tree" at 
http:// fink.sourceforge.net/ under the heading "News 2005-04-29: Fink 
and Tiger". Use a Terminal shell for typing your commands.

     Note that I followed the instructions for "users of the unstable 
tree" and did not "bootstrap" an installation of Fink, though you may be 
able to bootstrap Fink as well. When running "Fink selfupdate," it will ask:

     "This fink version introduces new settings stored in the fink 
configuration file '/sw/etc/fink.conf'. You should rerun the 
configuration process. Do you want to configure now?" The default is 
"N"; however, you should answer "y". Answering "N" will give the 
following error:

         "Please remember to call 'fink configure' later!

         done.

         Re-executing fink to use the new version...
         Failed: no matching version found for gettext"

     Use default responses for all other questions.

     2. Using Fink Commander, install the visual-py23 package from 
source. If you do not use Fink Commander, type the command "fink install 
visual-py23" in a Terminal shell.

     3. To run vpython scripts from a Terminal shell, you will have to 
link /usr/bin/python to /sw/bin/python23 using the following commands:

         sudo rm /usr/bin/python
         sudo ln -s /sw/bin/python23 /usr/bin/python

     Now you can run a vpython program using "python myvpythonprogram".

[Visualpython-users] Mac OSX 10.4

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I did a clean install of Mac OSX 10.4, installed X11 (found by scrolling 
down to "Optional Installs" on the installer DVD), installed Fink, and 
installed VPython, all as per instructions which have been updated at 
vpython.org. Many thanks to Martin Costabel for getting a version of 
Visual into the packages for the 10.4 version of Fink.

One minor thing went wrong: Fink creates a statment in my .profile file 
which should effectively add /sw/bin to the application search path. 
However, it doesn't work: I have to execute /sw/bin/vpython rather than 
simply executing vpython. I tried putting other path-setting statements 
in .profile to no avail. I suspect that somehow my .profile is not being 
processed when I start up X11. A colleage also had this problem. Is 
there a Unix expert who can advise us on this? Thanks.

Bruce Sherwood

Re: [Visualpython-users] Mac OSX 10.4

[Martin C. <cos...@wa...>]

Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> I did a clean install of Mac OSX 10.4, installed X11 (found by scrolling 
> down to "Optional Installs" on the installer DVD), installed Fink, and 
> installed VPython, all as per instructions which have been updated at 
> vpython.org. Many thanks to Martin Costabel for getting a version of 
> Visual into the packages for the 10.4 version of Fink.
> 
> One minor thing went wrong: Fink creates a statment in my .profile file 
> which should effectively add /sw/bin to the application search path. 
> However, it doesn't work: I have to execute /sw/bin/vpython rather than 
> simply executing vpython. I tried putting other path-setting statements 
> in .profile to no avail. I suspect that somehow my .profile is not being 
> processed when I start up X11. A colleage also had this problem. Is 
> there a Unix expert who can advise us on this? Thanks.

If there were a FAQ for Apple's X11, this would be one of the most FAQs :-)

X11.app, since it is not started from a shell but from the Finder, does 
not inherit any environment from shell startup scripts. You have to make 
sure yourself that the environment is loaded at the point where you 
start your command; how to do it depends on how you start your vpython 
command. There are lots of different possibilities, depending on whether 
you run your command on the command line from an xterm, from ~/.xinitrc 
or the Applications menu and in case you start it from an xterm, whether 
you started your xterm from ~/.xinitrc or from the Applications menu.

Three of the most popular ways to get over this hurdle are:

1. Don't use xterm. Set DISPLAY=:0 in your Terminal.app window and run 
vpython from there. The shell running inside Terminal.app windows has a 
decent environment. Or use "open-x11 vpython". This has the additional 
advantage of starting X11.app if it is not running.
2. Start your xterm not as "xterm" but as "xterm -ls".
3. Start your xterm from ~/.xinitrc, but have a line
"source /sw/bin/init.sh" as first line of ~/.xinitrc.

-- 
Martin

Re: [Visualpython-users] Mac OSX 10.4

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Thanks for the explanation, Martin. Also, I found the following Fink FAQ 
about the matter, with the key comment at the end that there's more to 
this than just adding /sw/bin to the application search path.

Q5.15: I get "command not found" errors when I run Fink or anything that 
I installed with Fink.

A: If this always happens, then you may have inadvertently modified (or 
failed to modify) your startup scripts. Run the /sw/bin/pathsetup.sh 
script in a terminal window. This program will attempt to detect your 
default shell and add a command to load Fink's shell initialization 
script into your shell's configuration. You'll then need to open a new 
terminal session so that your environment settings are loaded. Note: 
Some older versions fink called this script pathsetup.command instead of 
pathsetup.sh. Alternately, you can run the pathsetup.app application on 
the Fink binary distribution disk image.

On the other hand, if you only have problems in the Apple X11 terminal, 
this probably means that you need to create a .xinitrc file and add the line

. /sw/bin/init.sh

near the beginning (i.e. before any programs get run). Restart X11 (if 
running) after you do this.

These /sw/bin/init.* scripts do much more than just add /sw/bin to your 
PATH. Many packages will not work correctly without these additional 
actions.

-----------------

Martin Costabel wrote:
> Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> 
>> I did a clean install of Mac OSX 10.4, installed X11 (found by 
>> scrolling down to "Optional Installs" on the installer DVD), installed 
>> Fink, and installed VPython, all as per instructions which have been 
>> updated at vpython.org. Many thanks to Martin Costabel for getting a 
>> version of Visual into the packages for the 10.4 version of Fink.
>>
>> One minor thing went wrong: Fink creates a statment in my .profile 
>> file which should effectively add /sw/bin to the application search 
>> path. However, it doesn't work: I have to execute /sw/bin/vpython 
>> rather than simply executing vpython. I tried putting other 
>> path-setting statements in .profile to no avail. I suspect that 
>> somehow my .profile is not being processed when I start up X11. A 
>> colleage also had this problem. Is there a Unix expert who can advise 
>> us on this? Thanks.
> 
> 
> If there were a FAQ for Apple's X11, this would be one of the most FAQs :-)
> 
> X11.app, since it is not started from a shell but from the Finder, does 
> not inherit any environment from shell startup scripts. You have to make 
> sure yourself that the environment is loaded at the point where you 
> start your command; how to do it depends on how you start your vpython 
> command. There are lots of different possibilities, depending on whether 
> you run your command on the command line from an xterm, from ~/.xinitrc 
> or the Applications menu and in case you start it from an xterm, whether 
> you started your xterm from ~/.xinitrc or from the Applications menu.
> 
> Three of the most popular ways to get over this hurdle are:
> 
> 1. Don't use xterm. Set DISPLAY=:0 in your Terminal.app window and run 
> vpython from there. The shell running inside Terminal.app windows has a 
> decent environment. Or use "open-x11 vpython". This has the additional 
> advantage of starting X11.app if it is not running.
> 2. Start your xterm not as "xterm" but as "xterm -ls".
> 3. Start your xterm from ~/.xinitrc, but have a line
> "source /sw/bin/init.sh" as first line of ~/.xinitrc.
> 

Re: [Visualpython-users] Mac OSX 10.4

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

I forgot that I did one other thing that contributed to the install 
working: I installed the XCode package from the 10.4 DVD. This 
apparently is needed to get through the VPython installation, and I've 
added this to the installation instructions at vpython.org.

Bruce Sherwood

Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> I did a clean install of Mac OSX 10.4, installed X11 (found by scrolling 
> down to "Optional Installs" on the installer DVD), installed Fink, and 
> installed VPython, all as per instructions which have been updated at 
> vpython.org. Many thanks to Martin Costabel for getting a version of 
> Visual into the packages for the 10.4 version of Fink.
> 
> One minor thing went wrong: Fink creates a statment in my .profile file 
> which should effectively add /sw/bin to the application search path. 
> However, it doesn't work: I have to execute /sw/bin/vpython rather than 
> simply executing vpython. I tried putting other path-setting statements 
> in .profile to no avail. I suspect that somehow my .profile is not being 
> processed when I start up X11. A colleage also had this problem. Is 
> there a Unix expert who can advise us on this? Thanks.
> 
> Bruce Sherwood
> 
> 
> 
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