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Joël Brogniart, 03/23/2024 09:13 am

Installing AMC on macOS

The installation guide requires some knowledge about Unix tools, the use of command lines, the installation of MacPorts. You must also have administrative rights on the computer. It is therefore not intended for everyone.

Prerequisites

To work with its interface, AMC requires an X Window System or X11 graphical environment, the Linux Libertine font, the DejaVu font family, and the MacPorts installation system.

X Window System environment

MacOS does not contain the standard X11 graphical environment. It is possible to fill this gap by installing XQuartz, an X Windows System environment running macOS. You can download the application on the XQuartz site. XQuartz.

Linux Libertine font

Linux Libertine font is a free font that covers code pages for Latin languages​​, Greek, Cyrillic languages​​, Hebrew, the International Phonetic Alphabet (and other). You need to download the package "OTF" on LinuxLibertine.org site.

Caution : XQuartz does not recognize the fonts installed in the user's folder. You must install the fonts by moving them in the "/Library/Fonts" folder.

DejaVu font family

DejaVu fonts are used for generating documentation in Japanese. You need to download the fonts on dejavu-fonts.org site.

Caution : XQuartz does not recognize the fonts installed in the user's folder. You must install the fonts by moving them in the "/Library/Fonts" folder.

MacPorts

MacPorts is a system that compiles, installs and manages open source software. You need to download the installation package for your version of macOS from the MacPorts and install MacPorts. Follow the instructions carefully and don't forget to install Xcode.

Installing AMC

It is possible to install one of the two versions of AMC. Either the stable version (currently, version 1.3.0.2132 of 20/11/2017), or the development version. The stable version evolves slowly and version changes are infrequent. Several months or years may pass between two version changes. The development version is subject to more frequent changes. Some of the new features have not been fully tested and may not work as expected.

It is not possible to install both the stable and the development version. If one of these versions is installed, you must uninstall it before installing the other version.

For installation and operation AMC requires a LaTeX environment. The standard installation will use MacPorts to install this environment. If you are using MacTeX and want AMC to use MacTeX instead of the MacPort environment, the installation process differs from the standard installation. You will install the Perl programming language that is necessary for the operation of AMC. Then you should follow either the instructions of the standard installation, or those of the installation of a version of AMC using MacTeX. These descriptions assume that you have a fresh and up-to-date MacPorts installation.

Installing Perl 5.26

MacPort is in a transition phase from version 5.24 to version 5.26 of Perl. To avoid malfunctions, you must force the installation of version 5.26.

sudo port install perl5 +perl5_26

Standard installation

The standard installation uses MacPorts to install the LaTeX environment needed by AMC. Use the following command to install the stable version of AMC.

sudo port install auto-multiple-choice

Or use the following command to install the development version of AMC.

sudo port install auto-multiple-choice-devel

Installing AMC for use with MacTeX

MacPorts build tools must be able to access MacTeX tools. For example, with the MacTeX 2017 installation, these tools are available in the "/Library/TeX/texbin" folder. The MacPorts configuration needs to be changed to include this folder in MacPorts path.

Be careful, as noted in the MacPorts documentation, changing MacPorts' path can have unpredictable effects and consequences for others tools. It must be avoided.

Edit the /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf file to add the following line.

binpath               /opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin

For the stable version of AMC, you must start the installation with the following command.

sudo port install auto-multiple-choice +mactex

And for the development version of AMC it is necessary to use the command which follows.

sudo port install auto-multiple-choice-devel +mactex

The installation may take a while. When it is complete and if there is no error, AMC is ready to be used.

Using AMC

You can start from the terminal or from XQuartz.

In the Terminal

auto-multiple-choice

This command will launch XQuartz and AMC application.

In XQuartz

Start XQuartz application.

We can immediately set XQuartz to facilitate the launch of AMC. Open the Applications > Customize... menu.

In the Personalization window, click the button Add an entry.

Set "Auto Multiple Choice" in the Name column and "auto-multiple-choice" in the Command column of the new menu item.

Close the Customize window, then select the Applications > Auto Multiple Choice menu.

AMC window should appear.

Auto-multiple-choice is now ready to work.

Links

auto-multiple-choice-window-2.png (35.1 kB) Joël Brogniart, 07/18/2022 10:56 am