Building MEME on a Mac: advice for non-programmers

[CharlesEGrant]

Quote:

I'm working on a Mac computer with OS 4.11 and would like to install Meme 3.5.7. Since I don't have much experience with computer programing, do you have installation instructions for the novice?

If at all possible, we'd recommend that you use the current versions of OS X and MEME. As of writing, the current version of MEME is 4.4, and the current version of OS X is 10.6. There have been several major improvements to MEME since 3.5.7, and we always focus on making the current version of MEME compatible with the current versions of Linux and Mac OS X. The MEME home page is: http://meme.nbcr.net . The MEME software can be downloaded fromhttp://meme.nbcr.net/meme/meme-download.html 

Installing the MEME command-line tools on a Macintosh is straight-forward. However, it does require the use of a terminal window (typically Terminal.app) to type commands to build and run the software. If you are completely unfamiliar with using an OS X terminal window, you should ask your local technical support for help. Installing MEME also requires that the developer toolkit be available, but the toolkit is generally not installed by default. The developer toolkit is available on the OS X installation disk in a separate folder, and you can also download it from the Apple Developer web site: http://developer.apple.com . The Apple site requires registration, but it is free, and there is no charge to download the developer toolkit. MEME can also be built using the development tools provided through the MacPorts web site: http://www.macports.org/ . Installing the development tools is also straight-forward, but if you encounter difficulties you'll need to ask your local technical support for help. 

The installation process is described in the MEME installation guide: http://meme.nbcr.net/meme/doc/meme-install.html . meme-install.html is also included in the doc subdirectory of the MEME distribution and can be viewed with you web browser. In particular, "Example 1" in the "Installation Examples" should be helpful in building and installing the MEME command-line tools. Installing the MEME web applications is more complex, and requires some familiarity with network and web server administration. 

If upgrading your OS is impractical, installing MEME 4.4 may still be worth a try, but we haven't tested MEME 4.4 with OS X 10.4.11. If you are forced to run MEME 3.5.7 instead, the installation instructions can be found in the distribution directory, in doc/meme-install.html.