Compiling GNU Solfege on Mac OSX

This page needs to be checked by someone who knows more than me (Allen McBride).

Updated 26 March 09. My apologies to anyone who was getting "No module named _solfege_c_midi" errors before. I think what I say below about MIDI should fix it. If not, let me know. --Allen

Here are the steps that worked for me to install GNU Solfege 3.14.0 on my Mac:

1. Download the source tarball from here, and untar it.
2. Open a terminal window, and change directories to the folder you just untarred.
3. Type ./configure
4. Type make
5. Type sudo make install and enter your password when prompted.

Now you should be able to type solfege from any terminal prompt to launch. You'll probably get an error message saying "No module named _solfege_c_midi". Go into Solfege's Preferences, tell it where to find an external MIDI player (see below) under "External Programs", and also select "Use external MIDI player" under "Sound Setup".

I have Mac OS 10.5, running on Intel... but I suspect what's more important than your OS or your chip is whether you have the dependencies. Because these steps worked perfectly for me, I assume I had them all. But I'm no software engineer, and I'm not sure where I got them all, or which of them I acquired and which came with my Mac. If you've installed much open source software before, I think there's a good chance you have what you need.

A detailed list of dependencies is in the README file that comes with the tarball. Here is my simplified version:

Runtime dependencies:

• Python (I think this comes with most macs)
• Gtk+
• PyGTK
• libgtkhtml2 (not needed with Solfege 3.15.5 and newer)
• An external MIDI player (qtplay works, and is available from Fink, from MacPorts, or from http://code.google.com/p/qtplay/)

Build dependencies:

• GNU Make (I think this is included with the Mac Developer Tools, which comes with the Mac. If you didn't install them when you got your Mac, you can install anytime from the CD or DVD.)
• Gettext
• Python header files
• C compiler (As with GNU Make, this comes with Developer Tools)
• GNU texinfo

You also need X11, but that comes with Developer Tools as well (or, recently, is installed by default). So Gtk+, PyGTK, libgtkhtml2, Gettext, Python header files, and GNU texinfo I'm not sure about. Maybe they come with Developer tools, or maybe I picked them up here and there. If you try to compile and find you don't have them, ask yourself how badly you want the current version of Solfege. If you don't care, go here to learn how to install version 3.10 via Fink. If you do care, I'm pretty sure you can get all these dependencies via Fink or MacPorts.

Good luck, and again, someone who knows more than me should update this page when they can.

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