Novelwriter doesn't work on Mac Os 10.13

[Aethondon]

Hi,

I run a 2012 macbook with OS 10.13 High Sierra because it crashes on anything newer and I like that I can repair this macbook. I would really like to use NovelWriter to edit a novel manuscript but it seems to be built on a much newer version of Mac OS and doesn't work on 10.13.

Are there any older releases or back-compatible versions I could use?

Many thanks in advance,

Donald

[vkbo]

Hi, the packaging for MacOS was set up by @Ryex, and I don't know the limitations. The DMG is built on MacOS 12. I am not a Mac user and don't own any Apple hardware of any kind, so there is relatively little I can do. I'm also having problems with the M1 release.

Your best bet is to install a Python environment on your Mac and then install novelWriter as a Python package.

See https://novelwriter.io/docs/int_started.html#installing-from-pypi

[Aethondon]

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly and for your advice! Donald

…

On Monday, 8 July 2024 at 12:09, Veronica Berglyd Olsen ***@***.***> wrote: Hi, the packaging for MacOS was set up by ***@***.***(https://github.com/Ryex), and I don't know the limitations. The DMG is built on MacOS 12. I am not a Mac user and don't own any Apple hardware of any kind, so there is relatively little I can do. I'm also having problems with the M1 release. Your best bet is to install a Python environment on your Mac and then install novelWriter as a Python package. See https://novelwriter.io/docs/int_started.html#installing-from-pypi — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#1970 (comment)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BJXFO3JF67LR7B4SWOYBUJLZLJXQBAVCNFSM6AAAAABKQKIQGGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDEMJTG4YDQOJXG4). You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Ryex]

Yeah, sadly there isn't much to be done if the DMG crashes. Trying to maintain a build for MacOSX wouldn't be fun (though in theory it should be a simple as setting up CI to run the same build process on a 10.x variant)

Your primary option would be to install via pip.

pip install --user novelwriter

in theory you could also build your own DMG.

Steps to build a DMG

• Aquire Source (ie. https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/archive/refs/tags/v2.4.4.zip)
• Extract source archive, open a terminal in the directory
• pip3 install -r docs/source/requirements.txt
• python3 pkgutils.py build-assets
• ./setup/macos/build.sh 3.12 x86_64 x86_64
• DMG should appear at ./dist_macos

[vkbo]

I may add that once you do have a Python environment on the Mac, updating novelWriter through pip is just a matter of running pip install -U novelwriter whenever there is a new release.

[Aethondon]

Sorry I'm pretty inexperienced with coding in general but I've installed PIP through homebrew and the command

pip install --user novelwriter

just comes up as command not found?

[vkbo]

Maybe you need pip3 install --user novelwriter instead? Not sure if Homebrew still distinguishes between Python 2 and 3 that way. It's common on Linux to have to add the 3.

[vkbo]

Yeah, sadly there isn't much to be done if the DMG crashes. Trying to maintain a build for MacOSX wouldn't be fun (though in theory it should be a simple as setting up CI to run the same build process on a 10.x variant)

MacOS 12 is the oldest available on GitHub Actions, so it would require even further steps to achieve. I'm hoping they keep 12 for a while since the build fails on 13.