[Ifeffit] Another Mac OS install question

[Matt Newville]

Hi Tom,


On Wed, Jul 7, 2021 at 10:36 AM Jilbert, Tom <tom.jilbert at helsinki.fi>
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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov/pipermail/ifeffit/attachments/20210707/cb7aa6a9/attachment.htm>