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macOS - Development and Darwin
Newbie wanting to learn about Programming Concepts on a Mac
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<blockquote data-quote="xstep" data-source="post: 1031585" data-attributes="member: 11647"><p>Perusing the Scibus site I saw that there was a link for a PKG installer for Ghostscript, so why not just use that? OK, you may not trust the source distributing it.</p><p></p><p>To install items from source, you'll need to install XCode. That came on your install DVD.</p><p></p><p>Often these source projects have easy instructions for compiling and installing. The problem comes when there are dependencies. In some cases those seem to go on forever. That is why people have created tools like <a href="http://www.macports.org/" target="_blank">MacPorts</a>.</p><p></p><p>Precautions may vary on your trust level. I'd backup my personal files and anything else that might be difficult to recreate. The few times I've used open source material, I've only downloaded from trusted sources. Either from the project site or sites they point to. Read the install documentation twice and note any exceptions or requirements.</p><p></p><p>As DaFlake mentioned, you need to define your focus of interest. If you want to write command line scripts then a scripting tool such as csh, bash, Perl, Python, PHP, etc all work well. I believe Python even has the ability to develop OS X GUI apps. Of course if your aim is to develop full OS X desktop apps limited to running on OS X, then learn Cocoa, the frameworks and tools Apple supplies for free. For cross platform development things get a little tricky, but common ones are Java and RealBasic. There are many development tools available for the Mac and understanding your interests will help narrow down your available choices.</p><p></p><p>It sounds to me that for now you are interested in how shells work to understand install scripts. The default on the Mac is Bash. I don't know how ofter bash is used in things like install scripts, so perhaps it would be better to learn csh (<a href="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/" target="_blank">considered harmful</a>), tcsh, or bourne.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="xstep, post: 1031585, member: 11647"] Perusing the Scibus site I saw that there was a link for a PKG installer for Ghostscript, so why not just use that? OK, you may not trust the source distributing it. To install items from source, you'll need to install XCode. That came on your install DVD. Often these source projects have easy instructions for compiling and installing. The problem comes when there are dependencies. In some cases those seem to go on forever. That is why people have created tools like [URL="http://www.macports.org/"]MacPorts[/URL]. Precautions may vary on your trust level. I'd backup my personal files and anything else that might be difficult to recreate. The few times I've used open source material, I've only downloaded from trusted sources. Either from the project site or sites they point to. Read the install documentation twice and note any exceptions or requirements. As DaFlake mentioned, you need to define your focus of interest. If you want to write command line scripts then a scripting tool such as csh, bash, Perl, Python, PHP, etc all work well. I believe Python even has the ability to develop OS X GUI apps. Of course if your aim is to develop full OS X desktop apps limited to running on OS X, then learn Cocoa, the frameworks and tools Apple supplies for free. For cross platform development things get a little tricky, but common ones are Java and RealBasic. There are many development tools available for the Mac and understanding your interests will help narrow down your available choices. It sounds to me that for now you are interested in how shells work to understand install scripts. The default on the Mac is Bash. I don't know how ofter bash is used in things like install scripts, so perhaps it would be better to learn csh ([URL="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/"]considered harmful[/URL]), tcsh, or bourne. [/QUOTE]
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macOS - Development and Darwin
Newbie wanting to learn about Programming Concepts on a Mac
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