[Nexus-developers] Mac OS X Installation

[Ray Osborn]

I have not been able to do any computing for quite a while, but I  
needed to demonstrate the Python binding for NeXus that I had  
operational on my Mac a few months ago.  Since then, I had upgraded  
from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.5, so I had to reinstall everything.   
However, installation has been fraught with problems, even with stable  
releases.  I installed HDF5 in /usr/local, but the configure script  
failed (it was 1.8.2, but NeXus was expecting 1.6).  I then installed  
it again using the Fink package manager, but then the Make command  
failed, etc.  I have now given up for the time being.

The point of this message is not to discuss the problems themselves,  
which can get resolved gradually through the Trac system, but to  
suggest that we make it an urgent priority to have package installers  
for all operating systems. If we can't make it easy for all the major  
operating systems (and Mac OS X does count, in spite of some opinions  
to the contrary), then we won't get additional users.  I'm motivated,  
and I'm ready to give up.  I would like to suggest that the package  
installers have to bundle compatible versions of HDF4, HDF5, and mxml  
as well to make installation really trivial.

I would propose that we fix this before the next release.  Do we have  
the necessary expertise within the NeXus developer community or do  
people know others with the right expertise?

Ray
-- 
Ray Osborn
Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL 60439, USA
Phone: +1 (630) 252-9011
Email: ROsborn at anl.gov