[Paraview] ParaView 2.4 on Mac OS 10.4, PowerPC

[Mike Jackson]

On Jul 6, 2006, at 4:39 PM, Chad Glendenin wrote:

> It sounds like ParaView on the Intel Mac platform is a solved  
> problem, but has anybody managed to get ParaView 2.4 to build and  
> run successfully on Mac OS X 10.4 on a PowerPC? If so, how?
>
> I've tried Kitware's binary of PV 2.4.4 on my G4 PowerBook running  
> OS 10.4.7, and so far, it seems to run perfectly. Kitware: how do  
> you build these binaries? Which Mac OS version are they built on?  
> Which compiler? May I see the CMakeLists.txt that you use?
>
> I have Carbon/Cocoa OFF and X11 ON. I've tried various settings for  
> OPENGL_INCLUDE_PATH, OPENGL_*_LIBRARY, BUILD_SHARED_LIBS, and  
> VTK_USE_RPATH. I was able to build a binary, but it segfaults after  
> showing a splash screen and -- weirdly -- putting an icon in my  
> dock. X11 apps don't produce dock icons. I think I remember  
> somebody mentioning a Tcl/Tk issue related to that, but I can't  
> find it on the mailing list. Anyway, I would appreciate any advice.
>
> Thanks,
> ccg
>

Um.. actually it is the other way around. Paraview is a non-starter  
on Intel Macs. It compiles and then segfaults. Kitware has pretty  
much abandoned the Paraview 2.x series on OS X.
    I had a version of Paraview (2.2) I think that ran on OS X PPC,  
10.4, but was actually compiled under OS X 10.3.9. I think you might  
need to compile with GCC 3.3 instead of GCC 4.0.. maybe.. There are  
some threads regarding this in the archives of this list.

Also, from June 13, 2006 posting to this list from Berk Geveci:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> I would like to remind that our Mac support is at alpha stage at  
> best. I have mentioned many times on this mailing list that a  
> stable Mac build is not a high priority. We release Mac binaries  
> and try to help with the build process so that Mac users are not  
> completely left out. However, judging ParaView's stability based on  
> how it runs on a platform we do not officially support is not fair.
>
> We will focus on getting ParaView 3.0 work well on the Mac in the  
> next months. Switching to Qt for our GUI toolkit will make this  
> process easier. ParaView 3.0 will be at alpha stage hopefully  
> before the end of the year and will be supported on the Mac.  
> ParaView 2.6 (to be released in the fall) will still use Tk and  
> will not be officially supported on the Mac.
>
> -Berk

So basically, if you have an Intel Mac, either run Bootcamp with  
Windows or run Parallels with Linux or XP. But pretty much forget  
Paraview on OS X, at least until next year. If  you are running OS X  
on a PPC machine, the best you can probably do is run the precompiled  
binaries.
    This whole state of paraview on OS X is pretty sad considering  
the engineers at Kitware are an extremely bright bunch of people. I  
have had the wonderful opportunity to work in person with a few of  
them and they were always able to answer questions and create new  
pipelines for us.
    Basically it comes down to _percieved_ market share of OS X and  
priorities for Kitware.

--------
Mike Jackson
imikejackson <at> gmail <dot> com