[BioPython] mac OSX - more advice

Cath Lawrence Cath.Lawrence@anu.edu.au
Thu, 11 Jul 2002 10:35:18 +1000


Original query from Aidan Budd <budd@embl-heidelberg.de>
On Thursday, July 11, 2002, at 01:53 AM, Jeffrey Chang wrote:
> Yes, it's probably to install from the source.  I have done it before
> on OS X with no problems.

Me too.

If you're new to OSX, but comfortable with some kind of unix, it will be 
really easy.

Let me recommend that you get fink: http://fink.sourceforge.net/
You can then use fink to get and install python for you - and many other 
nifty open source packages. (It's very like debian's apt-get)

Note, this will be the unix-style python, without the Mac IDE. I've not 
bothered to try the mac version as I just run with emacs & Xterms. If 
you want the mac type python you'll probably need to get it from apple's 
download site and work out for yourself what the path is supposed to be.

Fink puts its packages by default in a directory structure starting from 
"/sw". Packages like BioPython go in "/sw/lib/python/site-packages/". 
BioPython isn't in fink, so just unpack it there yourself.

Finally, I suggest you get the CVS version of BioPython if you need 
GenBank or PDB parsers.

good luck,
Cath
Cath Lawrence,                       Cath.Lawrence@anu.edu.au
Scientific Programmer,  Centre for Bioinformation Science,
John Curtin School of Medical Research
Australian National University,  Canberra ACT 0200
ph: Maths (02) 6125 2904;  JCSMR (02) 6125 0417;
mobile: 0421-902694   fax: (02) 61254712