How to make LyX work with Mac OS 13.1:solved

[Stephan Witt]

Am 15.12.2022 um 16:22 schrieb Scott Kostyshak <skostysh at lyx.org>:
> 
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2022 at 04:05:27PM +0100, Stephan Witt wrote:
>> Am 14.12.2022 um 17:02 schrieb Scott Kostyshak <skostysh at lyx.org>:
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 05:55:17PM +0200, Dr Eberhard Lisse wrote:
>>>> Hal,
>>>> 
>>>> the command is
>>>> 
>>>> 	 sudo xcode-select --install
>>>> 
>>>> you will then be asked for your password.
>>>> 
>>>> It is a system wide installation of the command line tools (of XCode)
>>>> and hence must be done as administrator (technically root).
>>>> 
>>>> The complete XCode will of course also install python3 but is a few GB
>>>> too much.
>>>> 
>>>> el
>>> 
>>> Is there a way from the command line to install only Python on macOS?
>> 
>> AFAIK you can choose either so called „Xcode Command Line Tools“ or „Xcode Developer Package“.
>> 
>> The command line tools include e.g. clang, git and python3 and SDKs. 
>> The disk image of version 12.2 has 431M and 14.2 has 672M. 
>> The unpacked files require approximately 2GB..3GB.
>> 
>> Without the command line tools installed there is a small python3 utility only.
>> The execution of this python3 triggers a popup asking the user for installation of the command line tools.
>> 
>> https://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/12523
>> 
>> Unfortunately this popup is raised on first python presence check by LyX. 
>> Shortly after this LyX raises its own popup to tell the user the configuration has failed.
>> This 2nd popup hides the first one partially and distracts users from the first.
>> 
>> The easiest solution for users would be to allow download and install of the command line
>> tools by confirmation of the first question, wait until it is finished (it really takes a while)
>> and restart LyX's configuration.
> 
> Thanks for that detailed explanation, Stephan. Do I understand then that
> this issue is a long-term issue on macOS that we should expect for
> future versions as well? That is, it is not just an issue that appears
> when upgrading to Ventura. As is, even a new Apple computer that comes
> with Ventura pre-installed will not have Python by default and thus will
> have the issue.

Yes, that’s true.

> It's good to know that LyX's own python check triggers the popup. Would
> it make sense to have a lighter python check that does not raise the
> popup, and conditional on that check LyX can give a user-friendly
> message like "macOS will prompt you to install python, which is
> necessary for LyX. We suggest you click on yes/accept/install“ ?

Something like that I had in mind too. Probably it’s enough to check for the 
platform and version (now we know how to do so :) ) and to modify the LyX
message prompt on configuration failure. The hard thing would be to debug
the solution. But I’ll try to come up with a solution for it.

Stephan


> Of course, this will not cover all of the cases. For example, if a
> different program triggered the prompt and they said "no", then I
> imagine they will not see the popup again.
> 
> Scott