[vtkusers] Naive questions for building on OS X

[roch at rogue-research.com]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the list, and other than seeing cool applications using VTK 
(and perusing the User's Guide), new to VTK.

I have read several messages from people installing VTK in OS X. As 
some of you may know, OS X has evolved a lot recently with the 
introduction of a fast X11 solution and improved compilers, fink for 
package installation etc... I would like to install VTK, however there 
seems to be a lot of hurdles to jump first, including installing cmake, 
then tcltk, then the cmake options for VTK including wrappers for tcl, 
python, and java. I would like some input into some of these issues so 
I can try to come up with a set installation instructions that I would 
be happy to summarize and share, unless someone already has this and is 
willing to share :-). Here are some areas I need to clarify:

cmake: This is required to build VTK. The current version available 
(unstable) from fink is 1.4.6-2. Does anyone have any experience with 
this working or not?

tcltk: I am a bit confused with this. I tried installing tcltk using 
fink, however after installation, I could only find libraries for tcl, 
not tk. Also, are there versions that are implemented using X11, or are 
they all Quartz based? There is a modified tcltk available from the 
Atamai web site but it is version 8.4, while version from fink is 
8.4.1-1. Is there a reason for the modified tcltk?

cmake configuration: If I want to use the tcl wrappers, do I want/need 
to enable X11? Does it work with the version of python (2.2) that is 
included in the standard OS X 10.2.3, or do I need to install anything 
else?

I guess this is the start of the questions that come to mind. I 
appreciate anyone's experiences and I will try to share anything useful 
I come up with as well.

Thanks,

Roch

------------
Roch M. Comeau, Ph.D.
Rogue Research Inc.
206-4398 boul. St-Laurent
Montreal, QC H2W 1Z5
Phone:(514)284-3888
Fax: (514)284-6750
roch at rogue-research.com
www.rogue-research.com