MacOS System Requirements, Conventions, and Installation
System requirements
This toolkit is known to run on MacOS Snow Leopard 10.7.x (latest
update). We no longer test on Leopard (10.5.x) and Snow Leopard
(10.6.x), but previous versions of MAT have been known to run
straightforwardly on these platforms. We believe that Mountain Lion
(10.8.x) also works, but we haven't tested it rigorously.
This toolkit depends on a number of external tools which must be
installed before you install MAT. For the Mac version, they are:
- Python, version 2.6 or later. Most of our development is
currently on 2.7. 3.x is known not to work. See the installation notes below for more
details.
- Java, version 1.6.0_04 or later.
- MacOS X Developer Tools (optional)
Conventions
The conventions are identical to the Unix conventions.
Installation
To prepare MacOS for installation of this toolkit, follow these
steps:
- Optionally, if you have not done so already, install the
Terminator tabbed terminal application. This application, if
found, is used by the MAT Web server
as a graphical interface; the Web server also runs in the
terminal, so you do not need this application. Terminator is
distributed with this toolkit; you can find the zip file in the
external/ subdirectory. The zip file will expand into a
directory named "terminator" which contains the Terminator
application; drag the Terminator application out of that
directory and into /Applications.
- Ensure that you have a recent version of Java. If you have
1.6.0_04 or later in
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions, you're all
set.
Once you've completed these steps, you may proceed with the
installation, as follows:
During the installation, you might be prompted for various paths
and locations which the toolkit requires.
When the installation is complete, your runtime environment will be
configured for you. The installed directory is not relocatable;
you must rerun the installer if you move the installation.
Upgrading
dependencies or moving the installation
If you want MAT to use a new version of Java or Python because
the Java or Python on your machine has been upgraded and the old
version is no longer present, just rerun the installer. The
installer will find the updated versions and reconfigure your
tools.
If you want to move the MAT installation from one location to
another on the same machine, just move the toplevel MAT directory
- it's completely self-contained. If you want to move the MAT
installation to another machine, the safest thing to do is
reinstall on that new machine.