Mathematica "Fresh Start" on a new computer?

[AES]

Moving to a newly purchased MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard OS, from an
much older MacBook with Leopard OS and probably a decade's worth of
remnants of older systems, unused apps, earlier software upgrades,
partially removed software, and other cruft. So:

1) Is there a simple way (a "deinstall" option) to remove _all_ traces
of Mathematica app and supporting files from older machine, before migrating to
the newer machine? (I don't mind losing any customizations I've done
or prefs I've set; and I'll save all my personal .nb notebooks
separately).

2) If not, then a way to find and remove all Mathematica-related files
manually? (.)

3) Since I have the Mathematica 7.0.1 CD and know the serial and license
numbers, I don't expect any trouble reinstalling it on the new machine
-- but just in case, are there any special de-authorizing or
re-authorizing steps required? (All the crap with Apple's iPod and iPad
authorization nonsense has me spooked.)

[dr DanW]

Your new machine will have a new $MathID, so you will need to contact
Wolfram to get a new mathpass. In my experience Wolfram has always
been very understanding about upgrades and is quick to turn around new
passwords. There is no authorization nonsense (beyond getting a new
password) that you have to deal with. If you are using a network
license, find out the name of the license server and enter it into the
dialog that pops up upon the first running of Mathematica.

For cleaning the old machine, the quick answer is scorched-earth: do a
clean install of Leopard. Sounds like this might be a good option for
you anyway. Short of that, throw away /Applications.app, /Library/
Mathematica, and ~/Library/Mathematica. Root around in those last two
folders first and copy any addon application packages, palettes, and
modified stylesheets you want to keep. This should get rid of any
Wolfram-licensed files you might have.

[John Fultz]

1) Removing the app is easy. If you really want to get rid of all supporting
files, too, then you'll have to do it manually.

2) Not including documents and any other files you may have created, you can
find supporting files in these locations:

* The Mathematica.app itself
* $UserBaseDirectory of any account which has used Mathematica
* $BaseDirectory (/Library/Mathematica)
* Mathematica may have also installed the Wolfram Notebook Indexer to be used by
Spotlight. This is available as a free download, so you wouldn't be infringing
any license if it's still there, and I'm not immediately certain how to
uninstall it.

3) Depending upon exactly how you're licensed, you may have to contact Wolfram
Research to do the system transfer. There's no special
deauthorization/authorization, but you do have to make sure you have a password
which works on the new system, which is related to the request for a system
transfer.

Sincerely,

John Fultz
jfu...@wolfram.com
User Interface Group
Wolfram Research, Inc.

[Dan]

One of the beauties of upgrading your hardware from a previous MacBook
is that you can attach your old laptop to your new machine like an
external hard disk. Just power down your old laptop, attach with a
FireWire cable, and reboot holding the command-T keys down. Mac OS X
goes one step further and provides a migration assistant to move all
your applications, files, and settings over to the new machine. While
I do not have a specific recipe for uninstalling Mathematica, I can
recommend a very nice uninstaller tool: AppZapper. This program will
seek out all the associated files, show you where they are, and, at
your command, delete them for you. It is a well thought out
application, recently recognized on DaringFireball.net. For what it is
worth, though, I think the only directory of associated files aside
from the Mathematica.app bundle itself is ~/Library/Mathematica.

Dan

[Pierre Albarede]

Hi,

> On Oct 1, 5:40 am, AES <sieg...@stanford.edu> wrote:
> > Moving to a newly purchased MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard OS, from an
> > much older MacBook with Leopard OS and probably a decade's worth of
> > remnants of older systems, unused apps, earlier software upgrades,
> > partially removed software, and other cruft.

I would advise to install Mathematica on the new machine, without
touching the old machine. It can always be useful, for comparison or
rescue, to have a working old version.

The migration assistant also works over a local network. However, as
the old machine is messy, it may be worth starting from zero with the
new machine and taking notes of what you are doing. You will gain a
lot of confidence on your machine.