These are notes that I have scribbled down as I set up my Mac OS X machine for working in the Hopkins Biostat computing environment.

X11

Should be able to install from apple's website or from the Installation/Restore disks that came with your computer.

R

Get latest version from CRAN.

EMACS

There are two options:

Customizing the behavior of Aquamacs...

Create (or if it already exists, edit) the file ~/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Preferences.el -- in this file you can add commands that will customize the behavior of emacs to your liking. For example, I wanted to make it so that if I pressed [option]-[right/left arrow] it would move me one word to the right or left and I wanted emacs to open up requests for R help windows in a new emacs window. My Preferences.el file is available by clicking here.

Create .emacs file in /Users/nick/ to give some better shading, spacing as defaults [this is poached from some combination of Roger, Haley and Bruce].

LaTeX

I installed Mactex which is a bundled installation including texshop and other utilities (install from .pkg file took <5 min). Available here. from the texshop website: The install package is available in two forms. One contains the install package with no additional utilities (a 282 MB download). The other contains the install package and additional front-ends, utilities, and documentation (a 370 MB download). Both are available over the internet for free. The packages are available from CTAN. After you reach this page, click on "our directories" and then on "systems" and then "mac" and then "mactex." Here you will find two principal files. MacTeX-20060213.dmg contains the install package alone, and mactex2005-20051110.iso.bz2 contains the install package and additional material. Note that each package lists the date it was constructed; these dates may change. At the moment, the install package in MacTeX-20060213.dmg is more recent than the package in the full bz2 file. IT WORKED OUT of the box! Little configuration needed. Also, there is a handy small-scale LaTeX image generator here called LatexIT.

Customizing the behavior of LaTeX

I created a few standard templates for beamer presentations and any academic file that I write by putting the files (see previous links) in /Users/nick/Library/TeXShop/Templates. Furthermore, I discovered that the natbib style for LaTeX was already installed at the path /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex. Seems like there are a lot of packages that come pre-installed with the MacTex package (which explains its size). Also, I used the command "find . -name *.sty" to find .sty and .bst files that are bundled with the installation.

WORD PROCESSING/SPREADSHEETS

I used to use openoffice, which remains a great option, but I have switched to Microsoft Office which runs a little bit faster. From my experience however, OpenOffice is a more sturdy program on the Mac than Microsoft Office is (more stable, fewer visual glitches) but it doesn't have some nice features like "Track Changes". Newer versions of Office might be less glitchy than the one that I have. I did have installed the X11 version of OpenOffice: FAQ here

MAC ODDS AND ENDS

ENIGMA SET-UP