Hi Tom, On Wed, Jul 7, 2021 at 10:36 AM Jilbert, Tom wrote:

Hi Ifeffit folks,

I am attempting installation via macports on Mac OS Big Sur, and there are problems to build demeter. Before I send around a log file, I wanted to check if anyone is still maintaining/solving macports issues (Joe Fowler?). ie is it worth it to keep trying. From the archive it seems that installing a virtual machine is a recommended alternative.

That depends on who is doing the recommendation. ;) A Virtual Windows machine does work for many people. For myself, I haven't been able to get Demeter to run on MacOS, even with MacPorts, for at least a year now (maybe longer). It's always been a struggle to use this. To be clear, this is not due to the packaging of Demeter itself but appears to be that the needed Perl libraries (I've had trouble with "compilers in general", "Pdl", and "wx") just aren't kept well-tested and up-to-date on MacPorts. I don't think this is a problem with MacPorts itself either - it seems to provide many other tools just fine. But something about the combination of "scientific Perl" with "perl GUIs using wx" are just not well-tested / supported enough to make installing Demeter easy and reliable. I don't know how that could be solved (and I've looked). Of course, I will again recommend trying Larch. It installs and runs on MacOS (and without requiring MacPorts or X or a Virtual Machine). The documentation for using the XAS Viewer GUI is far from extensive, but if you're familiar with Athena and Artemis, then most analysis steps should map pretty well onto XAS Viewer. It also has some features that Athena and Artemis don't have, especially if Athena and Artemis are using Ifeffit as a backed. There may be some things that Athena and Artemis can do that XAS Viewer (or even Larch) cannot do, but at this time I believe those are sort of down too: Things I know that Athena/Artemis do that XAS Viewer (and/or Larch) cannot do: Automatically import and "tie" data from a reference channel to an experimental spectrum in the same file. Worth a discussion. GUI interface for a Feff-fit to multiple data sets. Larch does support this but only from scripts/Python programs. That might change, but not soon. Fitting "the background" with the Feff-fit. That could be included. FWIW, Larch/XAS Viewer does use the uncertainty in chi(k) from background subtraction in the Feff fit. Virtual Paths and Paths from Empirical Standards. - not available in Larch, maybe "consider, if/when requested". Have extensive user control of configuration settings. Have excellent documentation. work in progress ;). Hope that helps, --Matt