This is a short how-to for using RedNotebook on OSX Snow Leopard.
Firstly, some notes: I am not an expert on doing these things. Below is just a guide and following them is done at your own risk, just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. For getting RedNotebook to run was a bit of trail and error and as I haven’t worked out all the reasons for doing this way and not streamlining it, it is a little long winded. And so onward…
What is RedNotebook and why use it? I have been using it for some time for my journal and notes for my blogs. It runs great on GNU/Linux and has a Windows installer, but I don’t use Windows very much and I do have an Apple machine. And to quote the RedNotebook home page “RedNotebook is a graphical diary and journal helping you keep track of notes and thoughts. It includes a calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality and word clouds. You can also format, tag and search your entries.”
I didn’t work out how to run it on OSX for my self completely, I used a few guides, tried each and it worked. In theory, you just be able to follow the instructions at Softpedia which is laid out (along with the other) below so all I did is in one place.
RedNotebookis needs python, gtk and PyYaml to run. It would also be useful to have the Developer Tools (XCode) 2.3 or newer; 2.5 or 3.x is recommended (availble from Apple (requires id) for free). So here is what I did.
Downloaded RedNotebook and unpacked it.
Downloaded PyYaml formhere and unpacked it.
I have MacPorts installed so I first installed what I thought was needed (in terminal):-
$: sudo port install python_select python26 py26-gtk py26-webkitgtk gnome-python26-extras py26-yaml
Then cd’d in rednotebook directory and did the same
$: sudo python setup.py install
Then:
$ rednotebook
To see if it would work or give me pointers as to what is missing.
As this didn’t work fully I did PyYAML directly.
Then cd’d in to PyYAML directory
the in terminal:
$: python setup.py build
$: sudo python setup.py install
Some of the packages are not recognised as being installed so next on to installing GTK and Py-GTK using jhbuild. The problem is that jhbuild will fail if macports or fink is on the system, so two choices exist, remove macports/fink or create another user with admin rights, log out and log into new account. I did the latter Then:
I downloaded and installed git (from here because I needed for GTK-OSX
Once git was installed I then
Downloaded gtk-osx-setup.sh to my home directory and ran it with
$ sh gtk-osx-build-setup.sh
This installs jhbuild in ~/.local/bin/jhbuild. It will also install ~/.jhbuildrc and ~/.jhbuildrc-custom and will copy the current gtk-osx modules into ~/Source/jhbuild/modulesets.
(If you’re running Tiger see here as some of Tiger’s software need upgrading)
As jhbiuld is installed in ~/.local/bin you must either add that path to your path, alias jhbuild, or call jhbuild with that path, eg.
$ ~/.local/bin/jhbuild shell
I chose to type in terminal:
$ echo ‘export PATH=~/.local/bin/jhbuild:$PATH’ >> ~/.profile
Closed terminal and then opened again.
Then
$ jhbuild bootstrap
$ jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-bootstrap
$ jhbuild build meta-gtk-osx-core
The boostrap was successful but the other two weren’t. When a module fails you are presented with a menu. I always tried number 1 first and went down the list in order to see what each did. On most occasions the module was skipped and jhbuild moved on to the next until it could go no further. I did this for osx-bootstrap and osx-core. Once done I logged out and logged back into my original account and fired up the terminal.
I then cd’d into PyYAML and ran the command:
$: sudo python setup.py install
then
$ rednotebook
And it worked,
The pywebkit installed with macports is for some new features. It is available here which you can download and compile the usual way (read install notes that comes with the package)
I hope this helps someone to enjoy the very useful RedNotebook on OSX Snow Leopard.