[R-SIG-Mac] newbie mac question

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Sun, 23 Jan 2011, Steve Lianoglou wrote:

> Hi,
>
>> I got a Mac Book Air for Christmas but I'm just starting to work with it.
>
> Oooh .. jealous :-)
>
>> I've never had a Mac of any kind before but have used Windows and Ubuntu.
>>
>> Could you recommend any "baby Mac" references for me, please?
>
> Don't really have one off the top of my head, does this help?
>
> http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
>
> If you have more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.
>
>> Also, if I download the R Mac binary, does it work like Windows, in 
>> the sense that I just click and install please?
>
> Yes, you'll download a *.pkg file which you can open by double
> clicking. I believe this will kick off the installer (or a new window
> with the installer in it).

But it is not all you need on a Mac.  You most likely will need (given 
you have been compiling packages and indeed R itself on other 
platforms)

- the matching Tcl/Tk from
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools/
- the compilers by installing 'Xcode' (which comes on the system DVDs 
but is not installed, and can also be downloaded).
- gfortran from http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools/

Some of these are .dmg rather than .pkg files, but install (in these 
examples) in a similar way.

I use a MacBook Air (late 2008, with SSD) as my laptop and have been 
very happy with it.  If you don't have the matching 'SuperDrive', you 
will find installing software frustrating (but it is possible to mount 
a DVD drive from a Windows box across a local network, modulo security 
issues, and it is also often possible to copy installation DVDs to a 
USB memory stick).

> -steve
>
> -- 
> Steve Lianoglou

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595