We'll assume you're using either Mac OS X, or Windows, or Linux.
If you're using **Mac OS X**, take note of what version of the Mac OS you're
-running:
+running. (Under the Apple Menu, select "About this Mac".)
* Leopard (10.5)
* Snow Leopard (10.6)
* Mavericks (10.9)
* Yosemite (10.10)
+If you're running **iOS**, you probably can't use this software on that machine. (A bit more below.)
+
Furthermore, you'll be in one of two subgroups:
* You'll have Apple's Xcode and the independent MacPorts system
installed. (Probably you don't. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't have these.)
+ If you don't have these, but want to try this route, you can read about
+ the MacPorts system at <http://www.macports.org/>.
+ This automates the building of Unix-type software on your Mac; it
+ makes it a lot easier to check for dependencies, use more-recent
+ versions of things, and so on. (Though as it happens, MacPorts only has an older version of
+ our chosen implementation of Scheme.)
+
Xcode is available at
- <http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html>. Some versions of this have been available for free, though you do have to register with Apple as an "Apple Developer", which involves accepting a legal agreement with Apple. I have an older version of this installed. If you download a recent version, email me and let me know how the process works so I can tell others. There are instructions about how to get Xcode in the MacPorts installation guide (see below).
+ <http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html>. Some
+ versions of this have been available for free, though you do have to
+ register with Apple as an "Apple Developer", which involves accepting a
+ legal agreement with Apple. I have an older version of this installed.
+ If you download a recent version, email me and let me know how the
+ process works so I can tell others. There are instructions about how to
+ get Xcode in the MacPorts installation guide.
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The latest version of Xcode to work with Leopard is 3.14; more
recent versions (>= 3.2) require Snow Leopard. 3.2.6 is last version that can be downloaded for free by users of 10.6 / Snow Leopard. (But if they pay, they can use up to Xcode 4.2.)
Xcode 4.1 was free to all users of 10.7 / Lion. Is Xcode 4.6.x still available for free? Are Xcode 5.x and/or 6.x available for free?
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- The MacPorts system is available at
- <http://www.macports.org/>.
- This automates the building of Unix-type software on your Mac; it
- makes it a lot easier to check for dependencies, use more-recent
- versions of things, and so on.
-* Or you won't have those installed. (Most Mac users will be in this group.)
+* Or you won't have those installed. (**Most Mac users will be in this group.**)
Then you'll need pre-packaged (and usually pretty GUI) installers for
everything. These are great when they're available and kept up-to-date;
- however those conditions aren't always met.
+ however sometimes those conditions aren't met.
If you're using **Windows**, you'll be in one of two subgroups:
i686 or i386 or whatever) version of Linux, and that I'm running kernel
version 3.12.8.
+**For all of these groups**, a general item to take note of is what "processor architecture" your machine is running. Three of the possibilities are:
+
+* One of Intel's i386, i486, i586, i686 architectures. These are collectively known as "x86" or "IA-32" or sometimes just "32-bit".
+* Intel or AMD's x86\_64 architecture. This is sometimes also called "x64" or "amd64" or "IA-64" or sometimes just "64-bit".
+* ARM or some other architecture. These are generally lower-powered machines, like iPads. Some of the software we're proposing *might* in principle be capable of running on such machines, but installers don't seem to be available. We'll assume you have access to an x86 or x86\_64 machine.
+
+In the Linux example above, I could tell my machine is running x86 because the result of the `uname` command said "i386" at the end. Another machine I have says "x86\_64" at the end. On a Mac, you can also say `uname -m` in a Terminal session, and it will say something like "i386". I think that Mac OS's from Lion / 10.7 forward have all been x86\_64-only. On Windows, I don't know how to collect this information. But generally, machines running Windows XP will probably be i386/32-bit (unless it's a version of Windows with "64-bit" or "x64" in its title); machines running Windows Vista or Windows 7 or Windows 8 could be running either x86/32-bit or x64/64-bit.
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