Installing maxima on MacOS-X Leopard



Jean-Paul.ROY at unice.fr wrote:
> [MacBook pro Intel, MacOS-X 10.5]
> I fail to install maxima following the suggestions of :
>
> http://maxima.darwinports.com/
>
> I can install darwinports but then :
>
> %  cd /opt/local/bin/portslocation/dports/maxima   # those
> directories do not exist !
> %  sudo port install maxima
>
> fails with errors when installing sbcl.
>
> I notice that binaries are available for Windows. Should I abandon my
> Unix machine (Mac) for a superior Windows machine to run Maxima ?
>
> Thanks for the rest of us,
>
>     -jpr
> _______________________________________________
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> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
>
>   
You first have to have a lisp installed.  The message

 "fails with errors when installing sbcl."

indicates that sbcl is not installed (I think).

When you install maxima from sources (which I do), you have to already have some version of 'lisp' already installed.

Try

 sudo port install sbcl

When that is finished, you can try 
  sudo port install maxima

Actually, I prefer to install maxima from source directly.  That way I keep various versions, if a new version breaks some things I need. Recall that maxima is constantly being developed, and some things change for the worse in a new version, only to be fixed later.

To do this, here is what I do.

 1. Download the source from maxima.sourceforge.net
    Suppose this is 
     maxima-5.13.0.tar.gz

 2. I put this into 
    /usr/local/src

 3. Then, do the following
    gunzip maxima-5.13.0.tar.gz 
    tar xvf maxima-5.13.0.tar
    cd maxima-5.13.0
    ./configure
    make
    make install

   This should give you a working maxima

 If you want to use rmaxima, you need to install 'rlwrap'
  sudo port install rlwrap

HTH,
 -sen
    
    
Note: I am using 'Tiger'  
       I presume the procedure is the same for 'Leopard'