Macaulay2 on Mac OS X


1. Installation

The easiest way to install Macaulay2 under Mac OS X is to use the Fink system
<http://fink.sourceforge.net>.  Follow the instructions at the Fink website
to install Fink itself, add unstable/main to the appropriate line in
/sw/etc/fink.conf, and then install Fink's "macaulay2" package.  You can
choose the binary installation method, or the source installation method
(which will download the source files and compile them on your machine).  You
may also wish to install emacs or xemacs using Fink, for the best interface
to Macaulay2.

Fink can also be used to install other software of interest to
mathematicians.  In most cases, you simply install the relevant Fink
package.  In two special cases -- the X11 windowing system, and TeX --
it is possible to install the software using another method, and then
tell Fink about it (by installing Fink's packages "system-xfree86" and
"system-tetex", respectively).


2. Running Macaulay2

The best way to run Macaulay2 is under emacs or xemacs.  Before running
Macaulay2 for the first time, edit the .emacs file in your home directory
to include the line

 (load "/sw/lib/Macaulay2-0.9.2/emacs/M2-init.el")

For further information about running Macaulay2 under emacs, please consult
the file

  /sw/lib/Macaulay2-0.9.2/emacs/emacs-hlp.txt


  The stacksize under Mac OS X is not always large enough to handle 
computations in Macaulay2.  (The symptom is a segmentation fault when you try
a large calculation.)  The cure is to run the command "limit stacksize 5m"
prior to the command "M2".  (You can experiment with different values of
the stacksize to find a suitable one for your computation.)