Mac OS X README

The application bundle JaxoDraw.app was built on the following system:

OS name: Mac OS X
OS architecture: ppc
OS version: 10.3.4
Java version: 1.4.2_03
Java runtime version: 1.4.2_03-117.1

It might not work on other systems! (Please let us know if it does).

It has been reported to work also on 10.2.8, it probably works whenever there is a Java implementation > 1.4.1 available.

(If it does not work, try to copy the JavaApplicationStub file from

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/MacOS

into

JaxoDraw.app/Contents/MacOS/

If that does not help, use the binary .jar file.)

GENERAL

If you are not sure if JaxoDraw is doing what it is supposed to do, try to run the program from the command line ("open -a JaxoDraw.app" or "java -jar JaxoDraw.jar"), if indeed there is something wrong, you should get some (hopefully helpful) error messages. Error messages also seem to be tracked in the system log, as displayed in the program Console (in Applications/Utilities), when there are any.

BUGS

NOTE:
The axodraw.sty file has to be installed before running an internal latex compilation, otherwise the program will hang. The easiest way is to put it into

$HOME/Library/texmf/tex/generic/

where it should be found by latex (create this directory if it does not exist).

Printing or exporting to postscript/EPS does not work if a postscript text is present in the graph.

The Watch-file mode does not seem to work (using "open" for default application).

The grid is somehow tilted on Macs: it always looks hexagonal. It is only the visible pattern of points on the canvas that is not correct, if you switch on the grid, the points you can draw on are correct.

Some funny things sometimes happen with postscript texts when they are edited/deleted. Refreshing the screen sometimes helps (but not always).

ISSUES

Issues with the one-button mouse (a/c = Apple/Command, alt = Option):

To group:

To copy to clipboard: see above.

Right button pop-up windows: press a/c and click (for instance on vertex button, grid button, canvas tab).

The MacOSX native Aqua Look&Feel has a few quirks, two that we are aware of:

Both issues (and possibly others) can be worked around by temporarily changing to another L&F (Metal is recommended).

Internal latex compilation doesn't work if the z-shell or tcsh is used as default shell. I'm not sure about the exact reason, apparently the commands are executed in a shell that is not a log-in shell, so that some environment variables are not initialized. This does not happen with bash. If you are using z-shell or tcsh, you must know what to do to make it work! :) One workaround is to start the program from a login-in shell ("open -a JaxoDraw.app" or "java -jar JaxoDraw.jar") instead of double-clicking the launcher.

David Sanders has privided the following information:

Preferences:

For text editor and postscript previewer, you can just put "open", the default application will then be used. If you want to use a specific application, use eg "open -a /Applications/TeXShop.app" for the text editor. The html browser field should be left blank, so that the java-internal browser is used (Safari does not support the jar protocol).

The paths to the latex and dvips executables are typically:

/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/latex
/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/dvips

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to the people who helped bringing JaxoDraw closer to Mac users, in particular (no specific order):

Byron Jennings
Barry Davids
Warren Siegel
Mark Srednicki
David Sanders
Eric Swanson