20021122: Unidata software on MacOS-X?

>From: John Merrill <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Rhode Island
>Keywords: 200211221320.gAMDKk412421 MacOS-X

Hi John,

>I am intrigued by the possibility of running Unidata packages under
>Apple Macintosh OS X.

So are a number of other people.  The good news is that some things
already run there.

>I can see that OS X is not listed in the Platform Support table.

That is correct.  A platform's adoption for support is not something
that is done lightly.  In fact, both the User and Policy Committees
usually have strong, if not overriding, input into such a decision.

>My
>initial interest is in GEMPAK. We've almost always been able to use
>Binary distributions for the Solaris equipment we've used. Should we be
>tempted to venture off into the wilderness of porting software to a
>new-ish Unix platform, we'd
>value any comments you might have heard about, or direction on where
>we'd hear informative
>exchanges on, issues surrounding use of this system. Thanks.

I can tell you that I have already made a couple of low level attempts
to get McIDAS working under MacOS-X.  I have one site that is very
eager for such a port (NASA Langley).  Chiz is also interested in the
issues in getting GEMPAK to work there, but I don't know what his
timeframe is.

One of our problems with MacOS-X is that the two machines we have of this
type at the UPC are portables that travel home with folks pretty much on
a daily basis.

I will chat with Chiz today to see what his plans for GEMPAK on MacOS-X
are, and I will get back to you with any information I can put together.

Cheers,

Tom