[Ham-Mac] OS X 101

[Brian Short]

I'll 'splain my recent activities... I'm NOT a Linux
guru and I just usually learn what I need to get
a task accomplished.

If you are running OS X, you can go to the Terminal
window and execute BSD Un*x commands.

One of the first steps to take is to download the
FREE "developer tools" from Apple.  This will
install the Gnu C Compiler.

Typically, user application software or other system
software will be distributed as a gzipped tar ball, for
example.  (You can't make this stuff up.)

Anyway, it comes with the Source Code (hence the
term Open Source) which then must be compiled
to create an executable image (an a.out type file,
COFF - common object file format, etc).

GCC is the key to the whole kingdom!  It is used
to turn all of the open source into stuff that can be
used on the particular platform like OS X, say...

Hey, I tried...

Now, I need to start playing with some of the huge
collection of Open Source stuff out there.

Another key thing is installing an X Windows graphical
interface (eg KDE).  Open Source programs which utilize
such an interface will usually be written for X Windows.

To play with this stuff, you need the X GUI as well as
the OS X GUI (this is hopefully my next step).  As far
as I know, X Windows installation will require gcc.


--
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