jmax

I am trying to compile jmax. I really like max. I really like GNU software. I want to run something like max under osx. It seemed like the thing to do.
IRCAM is not exactly devoting lots of resources towards the OSX version. Why should they? Anyone can run max on OS9, if they have OS9 and max, which is not GNU. Anyway, maybe there are liscencing issues, who knows. The thing is that the makefile for OSX is broken. Important things are missing. Somehow, I hosed installing two library files. I can’t just re-make them because some sort of VERSION is missing. I have re-downloaded the source to recompile the missing libraries so I can manually install the missing files.
Additionally, jmax is convinced that it is running on a linux box, so it insists on looking for all the libraries under directories called i686-linux, instead of ppc-macosx. It’s easy to create dynamic links, but you’d hope someone would notice this and fix it. Why not me? Because I’m a lousy release engineer.
Yesturday an error with the install command in one of the makefiles changed the permission of /usr/bin to 744 instead of 755. The funny thing is that none of the apple gui applications even flinched. Do gui applications (by gui, I mean aqua) even use regular unix libraries? (Yes, I know the libraries reside in /usr/lib, not /usr/bin.) I feel like my computer is some sort of Siamese twin.
I want to upgrade to the latest OS version, but more than $100 for an addition of 0.1 versions seems a bit steep. Why does Steve Jobs need to act like Steve Jobs? His personality is infecting Apple like it infected NeXTSTEP. People say that NeXTSTEP died because of insane pricing. They also had complete disregard for their customers. Well, Apple is now dabbling in insane pricing . . .. It’s time for a non-interm CEO.
I’m such a nerd. noone with self-respect should have opinions on the CEOs of companies manufacturing luxury goods . . .