----- Original Message ----
From: Andy <address@hidden>
To: alma rivera <address@hidden>
Cc: thekingofcheap <address@hidden>; address@hidden
Sent: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 9:43:31 AM
Subject: Re: Acessing the GUI
alma rivera wrote:
Hi
there,
I am also a statistics student that downloaded PSPP as an alternative
of SPSS. I am a big fan of opensource material, even though I am far
from managing the complex programming procedures. I have downloaded
PSPP 6.0 but, apparently, have an uncompiled product. Everywhere I
have looked for, what I have found are instructions for compiling in
environments that, at least what I have understood, are not Mac based.
Are there instructions for compiling the package downloaded at
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Math-Scientific/PSPP.shtml?
After it unzip I got a bunch of files that are not identified by my
OS... I have not been able to install it. I followed some
instructions there but I dont think those were prepared for a Mac.
I already asked and John Darrington helped me, but I have not been able
to do this. I have looked for a forum or something like that for
begineers but havent been successful.
I would really love to be able to do this since most of my classmates
and even my professor didnt knew anything about PSPP and I think its
great that a project is been developed so people can have access to
information without having to spend so much money.
Thanks again for your time....
Alma
Alma,
<sheepish> As much as I would love to help you compile and
install pspp on you mac, I have to confess that my experience with OS X
is limited to playing around with the iLife applications on a friend's
laptop. </sheepish> Below, I have tried to give you some
pointers and resources to help you get started. I wish I could tell you
exactly how to compile it on your computer, but I don't. On the other
hand, I can assure you that if you take the time to compile this
application for the mac and make this knowledge accessible here, that
your contribution to the project would be greatly appreciated! You
could become the resident mac expert!
I don't know how hard it is to compile this application on the Mac, but
I'm quite sure you will have to install a number of additional software
packages before you can proceed. I'm not too sure how many users of OS
X there are on this list. My impression (possibly mistaken) is that
most of the people on this list use Linux and I'm afraid our expertise
is going to lean in that direction. However, there is a project called
fink that specializes in porting Linux apps to OS X! These guys are
going to be better equipped to help you learn how to install and use
the gnu tool chain on your mac than I can. You can find them here:
http://www.finkproject.org/index.php?phpLang=en
Their existing installation tools can install a binary version of pspp,
but it's version 0.4 which does not include any graphical user
interface. I would review their materials first. I assume they publish
some good info on compiling Linux apps on your operating system. Their
mailing list is probably also a good resource for you to use. It will
take some work, but the folks over at the fink project can definitely
point you in the right direction.
There is one slightly simpler option, which may or may not be doable
for you. If you have access to an second computer, you could install
Linux on this computer and install pspp on this system. Ubuntu 8.10
will be out in October, and will include pspp 0.6.0 in the download
repositories.
I wish I could help more, but I don't own a Mac and don't know anything
about compiling on that platform. However, if they guys over at the
fink project get you started and you get some funky error messages, I
would be very willing to look at the output to see if I can offer any
assistance figuring out what is missing.
--andy
--
Insert something humorous here. :-)