Oh, I should have read your posting more closely, you do want to build LaserWeb4 from the source.

To do so, you will first need to install some development tools, I am not too familiar with Mac programming but you will probably need to install the Mac XCode development tools. Your script also makes use of git, yarn and npm. If any of these are not part of the Xcode development suite they will need to be installed separately.

Once you have the tools installed, open up a terminal, change to the directory containing the build.osx.sh file, make sure that the file has execute permission, and then execute it by typing:
./build.osx.sh

That should download the latest source code and build it.
Clive

Edited By clivel on 10/11/2019 15:46:12

Looks like the maintainer isn't available, there's been no response to any queries since 19th September's:

Where is the .dmg (for OSX)

I find the website isn't up-to-date and the only binary install currently available for the new version is for Windows. Both Linux and Mac require some source code hoop jumping. I'd be inclined to leave it for a few weeks to see if the maintainer provides a dmg. Could be that's what he's busy doing.

However, if you want to install from source you have the necessary bash script. It appears to download and install Javascript modules, which are also scripts and almost certainly safe, to be run in a Browser.

bash scripts are executed from the command line. Proceed to Mac's top-right corner & select the magnifying glass. Type terminal and a text window should open with a % or $ prompt.

If you know the directory the script is stored in, it can be executed by typing:

bash /path/to/build.sh

where /path/to is the full directory name of the build script's directory. You should be able to find the full directory name by asking the magnifying glass to find 'build.sh', but there may be a few. Be sure you execute the right one.

No guarantees – I'm not a Mac expert – but let me know what the script outputs if the advice fails. If necessary I'll steal daughters mac and install LaserWeb myself to see if it can be made to work.

Dave

Hi Michael,

I took a quick look at the errors above and if you still want to have a go at building this then try the following:

1 – I think you are launching the script from the wrong place. The script expects to be run from the directory where it is located.

cd Downloads/LaserWeb4-Binaries-4.0.996-134

./build.osx.sh

2 – The script can't find the yarn command – you probably need to download it from somewhere

3 – The same with npm.

Keith

yarn and npm are both package managers – used to download, install, and remove software.

yarn is available from here. But try typing 'brew install yarn' at the command line. (brew is another package manager)

npm is the Javascript package manager, and comes with node: Try typing 'brew install node'

If they install, re-run build.sh Good spot from Keith about it expecting to run in the directory in which it's located.

For background:

• DMG is the Mac Package Manager. If set up correctly by the software maintainer, it should download and install (or remove) all the software needed to make something work on an Apple computer. In this case it's not available in full form hence Michael has to install some foundation software manually. Welcome to the cruel world of software engineering. It's Dependency Hell!
• LaserWeb4 is a Javascript application, and any Javascript dependencies are managed by npm, 'Node Package Manager'.
• yarn is also a package manager, not sure what is does here, I think it's managing the Javascript components as a development package, ie a programmer tool supporting several people working at the same time on a project.
• git is a source code repository and version control package, also normally a programmer tool supporting team work. It may be necessary to install it as well.
• xcode is Mac's software development toolset, which is 'do everything' huge. May not need it, there's a smaller package called 'homebrew'.

Have sympathy for package management writers. On a large MS-Windows project of my acquaintance the stress was such that they had to be rotated off the job after about 6 months!

Dave

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