Licensed Ribbons Software Mac OSX Executables

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Last update: Sep 2, 2008.

Latest release: ribbons 3.32
This is only for the Mac OSX 10.2 (Jaguar) and higher (compiled w/10.2).
Have been told it runs fine on OSX 10.3 (Panther) and OSX 10.4 (Tiger) also.
There are recent versions compiled by kind users under OSX 10.4 (see below.)
Would like to make a new and improved Apple-style professional release, if I buy a Mac next year (Currently have no access to a Mac.)

There are older executable versions available as well as Mac-specific release notes.

Known Bugs:

The ribbons-data GUI now requires Python2.4. It might not work, depending on your configuration. Pondering...let me know...
You may have to go back to the 'Tcl/Tk' version (the old 'elmo' directory). Just download that archive from the old version...

Major huge bug: aspect ratio may not be maintained as you resize the window!
You should get it about right, save all your defaults from the file menu (which forces the right aspect based on the 'X' dimension), then re-start the program.

There are still the same bugs (explanations/feedback far below):

• Motif toggle widget weirdness
  (but now they 'work', but the indicator/text may be out of sync)
• The one-button mouse.
  (but have added keypad emulators for Zrot, Ztrans, Zslab - see release notes)
• The alt-Key shortcuts don't work.
  (but you can with 3.20 simply press 'a' instead of 'Alt-a')
• No on-line, html-based help.
  (but can point your browser to $RIBBONS_HOME/help/manual.html or the website)

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Software:

Required Libraries:

• You will probably have to get the 'Motif' (openmotif) GUI widget library.
• You may have to get the 'TIFF' image library.
• You may have to get the 'JPEG' image library.
• You may also need to get the 'Python2.4' scripting language.
• You should install the libraries using Fink (see below).

Compiled Executable Binaries:

• rib_macx2.tgz -- Ribbons 3.32 for Mac OSX 10.2 (Jaguar or Panther). Sep 22, 2006.

Do you have 10.4 (Tiger)?
Download Angi's new compiled version (Aug 08)
-OR-
Try the new automatic installer version further below...

You must have the required files of the Base Distribution.
The archive 'rib_macx2.tgz' above is just the compressed archive of the ~ribbons/bin directory for OSX. You can unpack with the base distribution's unzip*.csh script, or just (from RIBBONS_HOME):

 
 tar xvzf rib_macx2.tgz 

Newest Version: full 3.32 binaries for 10.4

• angi.txt explanatory notes
• bin.zip the 'ribbons/bin' directory

Courtesy of Angi C., Berkeley.

New: test Mac Install for 10.4

• mac.dmg.gz

Courtesy of Bill Scott, UCSC. (this is Version 3.30 - good enough...) He has made a self-contained Mac OS X ribbons installation with an application installer.
It contains everything needed to run (except Apple's X11) and was compiled against a Framework build of Python2.4. I also made an installer for that (OS X only comes with version 2.3). This has the added advantage of using the aqua Tkinter, which is a bit snappier and more aesthetically pleasing than the X-windows version. I kept that Python2.4 package separate because I didn't want to clobber a potential user's existing install. Python2.4 installs into /Library/ Frameworks (which is the canonical location for third-party frameworks). Everything else installs into /usr/local/ribbons

I've used some dynamic libraries from the Fink project and moved them into /usr/local/ribbons/lib, and made a shell script wrapper for the ribbons executable that sets $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on the fly. The setting persists only as long as the user is running ribbons, which avoids some potential complications.
I hope this might be of some use.

The user should issue:

export RIBBONS_HOME=/usr/local/ribbons
PATH=$PATH:$RIBBONS_HOME/bin
export PATH

Recipe for Unix novices

If you aren't used to this unix command line stuff, here's a very nice 'Word' document courtesy of Ed Rosloniec.
Feedback welcome.

Installing Python 2.4

(from Scott:)

1) Downloaded the python 2.4.1 source from the python website.
2) Compiled python from the source
    executed configure
    executed make
    executed make install
3) Somewhere during the compiling/configuring you can specify where to place 
   the target executables and libraries.  I specified that they  be placed 
   in my local account, e.g /Users/admin/ , instead of /usr/bin. 
   That way the python installation that comes with the machine
   is not overwritten.
4) Updated my $path and $PYTHONPATH so that they point to the 
   newly  installed directories instead of the old python 2.3.

Testing/Running on the Mac:

Open an X11 terminal window (I have a big X11 in my 'dock'). Type:
ribbons-demo -n calmod
Fails if Motif and/or Tiff libraries are missing.

To test the data preparation interface, type:
ribbons-data
This requires Python to be installed.

Fink:

If ribbons doesn't work, get/install missing libraries from Fink - Home.
... The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac ...
Guess you Mac folk probably already know about this.

Several have had problems with the Motif libraries, so here they are compiled om my machine.
libXm.a = static version.
libXm.3.0.1.dylib = dynamic version (which may have to be linked to 'libXm.dylib' or 'libXm.3.dylib')

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