Matt,
another bit of information: I tried to follow one of the many protocols I found, precisely the following:

wget http://cars.uchicago.edu/ifeffit/src/ifeffit.tar.gz
 tar xvzf ifeffit.tar.gz
[I used the 1.2.8 version]

  sh configure --prefix=/sw
at the end of this I get the following error message:

===  ifeffit 1.2.8 Configuration Results:
===  linking to PGPLOT with: /Users/stefano/Documents/Downloads/ifeffit-1.2.8/src/pgstub/libnopgplot.a
===
===  could not find TERMCAP Libraries : 'make' will fail.
===
===  Please set TERMCAP_LIB in src/cmdline/Makefile or use the
===  --termcap-link argument before running make
stefano% --termcap-link
tcsh: --termcap-link: Command not found.

I am not sure what should I do when I read: "Please set TERMCAP_LIB in src/cmdline/Makefile or use the  --termcap-link argument before running make"

...Stefano