New installation instructions for OS X

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GarryP

Recently there have been a few people having problems installing Scribus on OS X as - in my opinion - the current instructions aren't very clear.

With this in mind - and it's something I've been meaning to do for a while now - I've just finished creating a new wiki page which tells people the easiest ways to install Scribus on OS X.

It also contains instructions on how to install GhostScript after installing Scribus (something that confuses many people).

You can find it here: http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/OS_X_-_Installing_Scribus_on_your_Mac_the_easy_way

The page is currently marked as under construction and I'd be interested in any feedback you might have.

I think it's really important that potential new Scribus users aren't put off from giving it a go because they are confused about the installation procedure.

So, if you think there's anything I've missed, or if there are any mistakes, or if you just want to comment for whatever reason then please shout up.

Cheers, Garry.

toyotadesigner

Garry, thanks for your efforts. However, installing Scribus on a Mac is simple:

01. Get the GhostScript installer here http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/Ghostscript-9.10.pkg and install it.

02. Get the Scribus installer here http://sourceforge.net/projects/scribus/files/scribus/1.4.4/scribus-1.4.4.dmg/download and install it.

03. Start Scribus and enjoy it.

I have done it many times for friends and neighbours with different OS X versions, and it always worked flawlessly.

However, I don't know if this procedure will work with Yosemite, because I'm still on Mavericks and won't upgrade because of the update costs for my RIP for the large format printer.

GarryP

Thanks for the feedback but I think you've missed the point of the article.

While your bullet point list above is fine for experienced users - even though the links will be out of date the next time the software is updated - it's no good for beginners.

My intention in writing the article was to take beginners through the installation of Scribus from beginning to end without assuming any previous experience (other than how to use their Mac in the most basic ways).

Picture in your mind someone who has recently got their first Mac and has just found out about "this Scribus thing" and wants to give it a go and see what it's all about. That's the sort of person the article is aimed at, hence all of the notes, warnings and "hand-holding".

I wanted to make the whole procedure as simple as possible to give people a good first impression of installing and using Scribus. Too many people are put off using software because the installation instructions are too difficult to follow for beginners. (I wouldn't like to guess at how many people won't give Scribus a try today because they tried it a while ago but they couldn't get it working because the installation instructions didn't make sense to them.)

The easier we can make it to install Scribus the more people will use it. And the more people that use it the more popular it will become. And the more popular it is the higher the chance of getting more people involved in the project overall. And the more people that are involved the better the chance is of getting more developers involved. And the more good developers there are involved the better Scribus will become. And up the spiral we go!

toyotadesigner

I see what you mean, however I know that a Mac newbie wouldn't touch a home-brew, Macports or Fink installation, or even try to compile the package. He will go the straight forward way and use a *.dmg file.

Note: if I issue the command ~ find / -type l -name gs -print, the system shows the correct path, but after that starts scanning external HDs which can take hours...

GarryP

The article mentions those installation options but it says, and I quote: "These are all valid installation methods and can be used if you really know what you're doing. However, the simplest way of getting Scribus installed is...".

The links that are there to the other installation options were added by someone else, I originally just mentioned them without the links. I'll probably re-word it to move these links to the bottom. They should be there, but not at the top. So you're right about that.

The article does already mention that the find command will continue to go to other connected drives if you don't stop it but I concede that it's probably not best worded. I'll have a think about how to re-word it to warn people before they enter the command. Or figure out how to keep it on the current drive (I'm not a Unix guru).

If you have any more comments please keep them coming. I really want to get this right.

toyotadesigner

It should be

~ sudo find / -type l -name gs -path /User -print

Didn't test it, maybe someone can verify this?