SAGE installation Part II

My original installation did not go quite as planned. For my MacBook, I downloaded sage-4.6.1-OSX-64bit-10.6-i386-Darwin-app.dmg from the SAGE website, and frankly if you have a chance to do it, DON'T. The difference between my download and Sarah's is that my version of SAGE was supposed to be an application, a binary release that contains a precompiled version of SAGE (i.e. a pretty icon that you can easily click on and which was supposed to come with all sorts of cool features).

The README.txt file that came with the software said that:

"Sage.app is a fairly simple application which starts the Sage server when launched and stops it when quitting. "

I can't quite argue with their statement about SAGE being "fairly simply" because I wouldn't know. I obtained my application after following instructions carefully for the download, but once I had it, the program just wouldn't start up. They do state the following about the application:

"WARNING: When Sage.app is run, it may take a _long_ time for the server to start up. Please don't give up. If you think it has taken too long, use View Log under the Development menu to see if there are any errors."

The application did take "a _long_ time" to start up; so long in fact, that I couldn't be bothered to wait around for it. In their defence I did only wait 3 HOURS!! 

In my opinion, I don't think the SAGE application is worth downloading. I did manage to download the source release like Sarah did, and compile it. The instructions that we had to follow from the website (that Sara posted in SAGE Installation) were very straight forward. One downside of course is the use of the terminal as opposed to the application, but at least it works. 

My next matter of business is to try to get SAGE installed on a PC at home. WIsh me luck!

SAGE Installation

The installation went perfectly fine, following the steps that were provided online.

Here are my step by step instructions:

DOWNLOAD

• Website: http://www.sagemath.org/

• Click: Download 4.6.1

• Choose :North America – James Madison University, VA,USA

• From the Subdirectories –Click: intel

• Click :http://wiki.sagemath.org/DownloadAndInstallationGuide

• Choose: Binary installation guide

• Click: http://www.sagemath.org/download.html

• Choose: North America – James Madison University, VA,USA

• Click: Sage Mirror Content

• Download for Apple Mac OS X - binary distribution for Mac OS X

• Click intel

• Choose: sage-4.6-OSX-32bit-10.4-i386-Darwin.dmg

How to INSTALL:

• You see a folder called "sage", proceed as follows.

• Drag the sage folder somewhere, e.g., /Applications

• Use finder to visit the sage folder you just copied it and double click on the "sage" icon.

• Select to run it with "Terminal":

Choose Applications, then select "All Applications" in the"Enable:" drop down. Change the "Applications" drop downto "Utilities". On the left, scroll and select "Terminal".

Click "Open", then in the next dialog select "Update".

In TERMINAL:

To start sage type : /Applications/sage/sage

For the graphical notebook, typenotebook()

...and so it begins

The very first of many posts into the wonderful (and most of the time frustrating) world of Sage.