Warren Weckesser | Notes on installing AUTO on a Mac

Notes for installing AUTO2000 (version 0.9.7) on a Mac (OS X 10.3.9)

These notes are for installing AUTO2000 on a Mac, OS X 10.3.9. (Unfortunately, installing in 10.2 or 10.4 will probably require different instructions.) With these instructions I was able to run one of the demos, and some of my own CLUI (Command Line User Interface) scripts. However, there is still something wrong with the Python plotting function (see below).

I didn't follow the steps in exactly this order, so be prepared to improvise.

Install XCode, the Mac development tools.
Install g77. I used the fink package.
OS X 10.3 comes with Python, but it is not complete. You will need to install the tkinter module. I followed the directions here: www.pythonmac.org/wiki/FAQ; scroll down to the 10.3 section, and find question 5.5 about installing tkinter and IDLE. When I ran "Package Manager", it could not find the URL. I had to open http://www.python.org/packman/version-0.3/darwin-7.7.0-Power_Macintosh.plist. (This is mentioned in the FAQ. The default version had ...darwin-7.9.0..., but that file does not exist.)
Get the AUTO tar/tgz/bz2/whatever file from sourceforge, and unpack it in your home directory.
Copy /usr/include/malloc.h to auto/2000/include. (This is weird, and it seems like it should not be necessary. Maybe I had something configured incorrectly?)
If you will be converting data files to AUTO format, you will need the new version of fcon.c. Put this in ~/auto/2000/src.
Follow the instructions for installing AUTO (./configure, etc.).
Before running AUTO, enter the following commands in your terminal:
```
 $ source ~/auto/2000/bin/auto.env.sh
 $ export PATH=.:$PATH
```
The first command defines the environment variable $AUTO_DIR, and modifies $PATH to include $(AUTO_DIR)/cmds and $(AUTO_DIR)/bin. The second command adds the "current directory" to $PATH.

A few more comments:

I still have (at least) one problem. When I try
```
 $ auto res2.auto
```
which is the script that runs my Forced Damped Linear Oscillator example, a plot is created, but I get an error:
```
Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ... < snip > ...
RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded
```
The plot window grows steadily larger, until it is significantly larger than the computer screen! I don't know why this is happening.
AUTO's Python CLUI is not compatible with Python 2.4, so only use Python 2.3 or earlier. The AUTO Python code uses a module called FCNTL. This module is deprecated in Python 2.3 (you will see the warning), and apparently it is not in Python 2.4.