Running recent versions of the LKB on MacOS
Currently (December 2006) there is no binary distribution of the LKB for MacOS in the "latest" tree. This is because the LKB developers don't have a Lisp licence for the Mac that would allow them to redistribute the binary.
One way to run LKB on the Mac is to buy your own Lisp licence and compile from source. (But I have not tried this myself, perhaps someone can confirm it.)
If you have an Intel Mac with lots of memory, you have another alternative. First, install Windows on the Mac using ![[WWW]](/wiki/modern/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
Parallels Desktop. This will let you run a virtual Windows machine in a window on your running MacOS system. Then you can install the Windows binary of LKB into Parallels. This seems to work flawlessly and quite efficiently. One caveat is that the virtual Windows machine will want to allocate its own chunk of memory when it is started, in order to emulate physical memory for Windows. You can control how much memory you want it to take; 512 MB has worked well for me. But of course this means that Parallels will use a bit over 512 MB on your computer, i.e. you'd better have 1 GB or more of physical memory if you want to do this.
Differences from the LKB Documentation
On the Macintosh, the LKB does not use CLIM for graphics but instead uses native OS X graphics. The Macintosh LKB graphics code base is different from the CLIM code base, and the facilities available are slightly more limited than those documented for the Linux/Solaris and Windows versions. The main differences are:
The LKB menus are not displayed across the top of the Lkb Top window, but are instead under the Lkb menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Windows do not have Close, Close All and Print buttons. Windows can be closed the standard way, using the leftmost button in the title bar. Holding the option key down while doing this closes all windows of the same type. In the absence of a print button, a reasonable alternative is to make a screen shot of the visible part of a window, using the built-in OS X Grab application (located in Applications/Utilities). See the Grab Help topic "Taking a picture of a window".
When parsing a sentence, each parse tree is displayed in a separate window. A command to show the parse chart is available in the Parse menu, not in the parse result window.
The MRS windows that can be obtained from parse windows contain just a simple textual display, so type names within them are not clickable.
When it starts up, the LKB tries to allocate around 400MB for itself -- this should be plenty to work with the LinGO ERG (but be aware that if your machine has only 512MB memory installed then you might see significant slow-downs if you try to run other applications at the same time). Smaller grammars will require less than 400MB, and if you find that your machine doesn't have enough memory or swap space to start up the LKB you can reduce its memory allocation by doing "Get Info" on it, selecting the check box "Open in the Classic environment", clicking on the "Memory" triangle, changing the minimum and preferred sizes, and finally unselecting the "Open in the Classic environment" check box.
There is only minimal support for this version, so do not expect quick fixes for any bugs you might find.
Legal Stuff
This version of the LKB is built with Macintosh Common Lisp ("MCL") under the terms of a "redistribution" licence, so to use it you do not need to buy a licence for MCL. DIGITOOL holds the copyright to MCL.
DIGITOOL, INC. ("DIGITOOL") AND ITS LICENSOR MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING MCL. DIGITOOL AND ITS LICENSOR DO NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF MCL IN TERMS OF ITS CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF MCL IS ASSUMED BY YOU. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
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BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. Digitool's and its licensor's liability to you for actual damages for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), product liability or otherwise), will be limited to $50.