I have compiled a program! Actually, if truth be told, the Mac did it all. I just lined things up and pushed the button. But in case anyone feels like doing likewise (Lynda, I know you have a Mac in your lab) ... I had been wanting to have a play with Sodipodi, which is an open-source vector graphics program, currently in early development (0.3.4). Over the weekend I installed OS 10.3, and, feeling my oats, decided to take a crack, taking a lead from ResExcellence.

The whole process involved:

• installing X11 and X11 SKD (see Scott Chitwood's entry on the page above) from the fourth Panther CD (not the third, at least for my version)
  
• installing the basic package of the 10.3 developer tools, Fink and FinkCommander (GUI interface). A useful set of definitions and explanations of the latter two from a Mac perspective is given over at Sao's Place. Fink and FinkCommander both came from Sourceforge
  
• modifying preferences in FinkCommander - I had to check both "use unstable packages" and "use unstable cryptography packages" and rerun the self-update before I could see the Sodipodi in the package list (Question 2 on the FinkCommander FAQ)
  
• hitting "Install", typing my password when told, and answering questions using the default
  
• waiting a long, long time, while 43 supporting packages with cryptic names were downloaded, compiled, and installed - and praying that nothing already installed got broken (GIMP!)
  
• firing up X11 and adding /sw/bin/init.sh; sodipodi to the X11 applications menu
  
• waiting while the computer purred and chuntered, and lo and behold, a palette popped up
  
• opening a new document, drawing a square, colouring it in, taking a line for a walk, failing to work out how to draw a circle, saving the file
  
• feeling very clever
  

I mentioned GIMP. There was a slightly worrisome caution in the Fink introductory matter that one should not install Fink if one had MacGIMP. Now, the first time I installed GIMP it was MacGIMP, but I was never happy with the number of error messages I got at launch, or with XDarwin's interface (I'm such a Mac princess!). So I eventually hunted down the original Apple X11.app beta that ran on OS 10.2 - sorry, I didn't take a note of where I found it. I know I eventually found it by a Google search on the exact package name, as Apple's site only has the official, incompatible-with-10.2 release. I then installedGimp.app version 1.2.3, which was the latest compatible with 10.2. Once I had 10.3 running, I downloaded Gimp.app 2.0.0.5 (GIMP 2), installed it - straight package install, no muss, no fuss - and it, too, launches and runs fine (without a great screed of error messages). And my messing around with Fink does not seem to have broken it. Next on my to-do list is to figure out how to enable a right-click analogue, since it's reminiscent of my piano-playing efforts at age 8 when I decided to leave out the black keys because I couldn't figure them out - I'm missing something. And at some point I have to go and uninstall the various bits of software that I have installed and reinstalled or updated or abandoned ...

The other OS graphics program I have recently discovered and installed is Blender, which is an open-source 3D building and rendering program which originated in a commercial studio. Unlike the other programs I am playing around with, the local library actually has a book on Blender, which I look forward to getting my hot little hands on. Stay tuned ...

BTW, all these programs have been compiled for Windows.
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