how to install the Fenics in mac 10.8

Download dorsal, an installer script, at https://code.launchpad.net/dorsal. (actually, the most recent commit is at http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~dorsal-core/dorsal/main/revision/799, so go visit that directly and click "download tarball"). You may have to edit dorsal.conf to use "unstable" versions, and download a lot of UNIX command line utilities. When you run dorsal.sh and it guesses your platform, it will first give you an information message saying what you need to download, and you can open up another terminal window to do that. Then after all that's said and done, press enter in your original terminal window, and hopefully you'll be good to go. I've had plenty of practice recompiling and reconfiguring FEniCS for 10.8 (still trying to get it to work with GPUs!), so if you encounter problems, come right back here.

Although apparently in the latest dorsal, Harish has disabled PETSc and SLEPc (more powerful linear algebra back ends), I haven't had problems getting them to compile on my 10.8 (unless I want to use the GPU). If you know what those packages are, and you want to try your hand at them, then, to re-enable them, edit (path to dorsal)/FEniCS/platforms/contributed/mountainlion.platform and un-comment the lines with petsc and slepc in them).

Hi Chris,
I tried it on Mac 10.8 according to the instruction above but failed with the error on the configuration stage of dolfin. What Xcode version do you use to build FEniCS? Do you install a fortran compiler or do you disable it somehow? My Xcode version is 4.5.2. Can you also paste the output of `port installed ` on your Mac? Thanks.

-- The C compiler identification is GNU 4.2.1
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.2.1
-- Checking whether C compiler has -isysroot
-- Checking whether C compiler has -isysroot - yes
-- Checking whether C compiler supports OSX deployment target flag
-- Checking whether C compiler supports OSX deployment target flag - yes
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Checking whether CXX compiler has -isysroot
-- Checking whether CXX compiler has -isysroot - yes
-- Checking whether CXX compiler supports OSX deployment target flag
-- Checking whether CXX compiler supports OSX deployment target flag - yes
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/g++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/g++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Performing Test HAVE_PIPE
-- Performing Test HAVE_PIPE - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_PEDANTIC
-- Performing Test HAVE_PEDANTIC - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD
-- Performing Test HAVE_STD - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_DEBUG
-- Performing Test HAVE_DEBUG - Success
-- Performing Test HAVE_O2_OPTIMISATION
-- Performing Test HAVE_O2_OPTIMISATION - Success
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/bin/ps) is setuid or setgid
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/bin/ps) is setuid or setgid
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/bin/ps) is setuid or setgid
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/bin/ps) is setuid or setgid
dyld: DYLD_ environment variables being ignored because main executable (/bin/ps) is setuid or setgid
-- The Fortran compiler identification is unknown
CMake Error: your Fortran compiler: "CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER-NOTFOUND" was not found. Please set CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER to a valid compiler path or name.
-- Found MPI_C: /opt/local/lib/libmpi.dylib;/usr/lib/libm.dylib
-- Found MPI_CXX: /opt/local/lib/libmpi_cxx.dylib;/opt/local/lib/libmpi.dylib;/usr/lib/libm.dylib
-- Try OpenMP C flag = [-fopenmp]
-- Performing Test OpenMP_FLAG_DETECTED
-- Performing Test OpenMP_FLAG_DETECTED - Success
-- Try OpenMP CXX flag = [-fopenmp]
-- Performing Test OpenMP_FLAG_DETECTED
-- Performing Test OpenMP_FLAG_DETECTED - Success
-- Found OpenMP: -fopenmp
-- Performing Test OPENMP_UINT_TEST_RUNS
-- Performing Test OPENMP_UINT_TEST_RUNS - Success
-- Boost version: 1.52.0
-- Found the following Boost libraries:
-- filesystem
-- program_options
-- system
-- thread
-- iostreams
-- math_tr1
-- mpi
-- serialization
-- timer
-- chrono
-- UFC version: 2.1.0+
-- Checking for package 'Armadillo'
-- Looking for Fortran dgemm
CMake Error at /opt/local/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeFortranInformation.cmake:27 (get_filename_component):
  get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:3 (PROJECT)

CMake Error: CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed
-- Looking for Fortran dgemm - not found
-- Looking for Fortran dgemm
CMake Error at /opt/local/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeFortranInformation.cmake:27 (get_filename_component):
  get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:3 (PROJECT)

CMake Error: CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed
-- Looking for Fortran dgemm - not found
-- Looking for Fortran sgemm
CMake Error at /opt/local/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/CMakeFortranInformation.cmake:27 (get_filename_component):
  get_filename_component called with incorrect number of arguments
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:3 (PROJECT)

CMake Error: CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER not set, after EnableLanguage
CMake Error: Internal CMake error, TryCompile configure of cmake failed
-- Looking for Fortran sgemm - not found
-- Looking for include file pthread.h
-- Looking for include file pthread.h - found
-- Looking for pthread_create
-- Looking for pthread_create - found
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