MacOS version 500 commits late?

[jmborer]

Hi there,

I just reported a few bugs of the lates 0.18 (at least the packaged one), and was told that the MacOS version in ~500 commits late compared to the Linux or Win versions.

How is this possible? May I help (I am a software engineer).

Cheers

JMB

[triplus]

Hi @JMB

Packaging is still a rather hard task, requiring a lot of knowledge and effort. On macOS side currently people involved can't invest as much effort, as they did in the past. If you are familiar with Conda, there is a weekly FreeCAD development package available there. In addition there is an ongoing effort, to re-package Conda builds for macOS platform.

If you have any experience in mentioned areas, for sure you can help.

[jmborer]

Hi triplus,

I don't know Conda (yet), but I am used to other packaging system and dependencies like Maven (if you know). I am currently trying to compile the sources for MacOS by following the explanations on https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/CompileOnMac. Let see if I manage to build the app. I then will have a look at Conda.

Any insights about the project status or documents except the wiki link above?

If I get the latest sources from GitHub, will I be able to build the latest FreeCAD version for MacOS?

I am currently using "brew". Is conda appropriate for MacOS?

[triplus]

To be honest ATM i am not 100% sure on what is the exact cause. For development builds to stop being produced for macOS. Yes, likely you would need to overcome similar challenges involved. In addition i never installed or tested Conda based FreeCAD package on macOS.

Said that, i am sure that you will get more precise answer in a couple of hours. From people more involved in macOS side of things.

[chrisb]

See https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 12#p277412.

[sgrogan]

If I get the latest sources from GitHub, will I be able to build the latest FreeCAD version for MacOS?

I'm sure the wiki is out of date. Some links that may help?
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 64#p289964
https://github.com/FreeCAD/homebrew-freecad
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-ports-cache

Also look at the https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... travis.yml in FreeCAD sources. Some update to Travis/Homebrew broke this, so we had to disable the OSX builds as they always failed. If you have the time/skills/interest, we could re-enable the Travis for OSX.

Conda is the package manager for Anaconda or miniconda (miniconda is all you will need for FreeCAD). It's been reported that the weekly builds work, so the dependencies should be in order.

Thanks for your interest, there is a large OSX user base for FreeCAD, unfortunately we have to few developers at this time.

[jmborer]

Good news.

I was able to compile FreeCAD by using the instructions of https://github.com/FreeCAD/homebrew-freecad
As I used the --HEAD option, I suppose it is the latest version of "master". I reported several 3D rendering issues that are now gone it seems. However this version is missing the web module.

Now I will try to do the same with conda, but I am still not sure how to use it. Any instructions somewhere?

[Jee-Bee]

Did you had to do some changes?? to run everything?

[jmborer]

Actually no. There was just an issue in the brew script at the very end that I easily fixed.

However, the application seems not to be perfect: the start page is missing, because it seems the web module is missing (the application complaints). I double checked in the build and the module is actually absent even though it is there in the sources. Not sure if a real MacOS app was build (I mean the usual structure that make is recognized as app), because I launched it from the terminal.

My goal now would be to reverse engineer the brew script to better understand the pieces involved in the build process. I have developed during 7 years in C++ and used Makefile, but that is quite far away now. So I need to remember. I still don't know how to produce FreeCAD with conda on Mac...

[looo]

I still don't know how to produce FreeCAD with conda on Mac

Basically all you need to do is:

1. setup your system: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD_Cond ... ild.md#osx
2. install miniconda: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html
3. clone the freecad-feedstock: https://github.com/looooo/freecad-feedstock
4. configure the conda-channels ( conda config --add channels conda-forge/label/cf201901 )
5. install conda-build ( conda install conda-build )
6. cd into the freecad-feedstock
7. call conda-build: conda build . -m .ci_support/osx_.yaml