GLPK/Mac OS X IDEs

Mac users have a choice of two GLPK IDEs that they can use to develop MathProg models. Both require Wine, a system that enables Windows applications to run within MacOS X and Linux environments.

GUSEK with MacOS X
GUSEK, a GLPK IDE developed for Windows, will run under Wine. The procedure below was tested on 09 July 2010 using MacOS X 10.6.4, Wine.app 1.1.44, and GUSEK 0.2.


 * 1) Download and install Wine.  Precompiled versions are available from the WineBottler site &mdash; the download button is the text item with the small downward pointing arrow labeled 'download'.  Once the transfer is complete, the file should automatically unzip and an installation dialog open.  Drag the 'Wine' icon to the application folder &mdash; you may be asked for your Mac password.
 * 2) Download and install GUSEK.  Download GUSEK from SourceForge.  GUSEK should also unzip automatically.  Put the gusek folder somewhere convenient (on your desktop perhaps).  Open that folder and then double-click gusek.exe.  It's a little slow the first time as Wine configures itself to run GUSEK. Several dialog windows may open up as Wine goes through its first time configuration process. A wine glass icon will appear in the upper left status bar of your Mac &mdash; that's your new interface to the Wine software.

At this point you're in business. You can either open an existing GMPL model or create a new one from scratch. Use the Tools menu to run and display the results of the optimization.

GLPK Lab with MacOS X
GLPK Lab, a 32-bit Windows application, will also run under Wine. The WineBottler application is used to encapsulate GLPK Lab into a single Mac application that runs under Wine.


 * 1) Download and install WineBottler. Following the procedure in step 1 above, move WineBottler to the Applications folder.
 * 2)  Download GLPK Lab from SourceForge. This should unpack as a single file with the extension .msi.
 * 3) Install GLPK Lab.  Start WineBottler from the Applications folder.  Select 'Create Custom Prefix' in the left pane of the WineBottler application window.  Use the 'select File...' button to navigate and select the GLPK Lab installer file that you downloaded in the previous step.  Choosing the 'self-contained' option will result in an application of over 250MB in size and is not necessary if you intend to keep WineBottler installed on your machine.  Click the 'Install' button.
 * 4) When prompted for a name and place for the resulting standalone application, choose a name appropriate for your Mac file system (for example, 'GLPK Lab') and a suitable location (such as the Applications folder).
 * 5) Click through the several installation dialogs, including the GLPK Lab EULA agreement.
 * 6) For the Destination Folder dialog box, keep in mind this refers to a location on the virtual Windows machine set up by WineBottler within the final application.  The defaults work fine.  You can later browse the contents of the applications file system by using the 'Open Package Contents' context menu and navigating to 'Contents > Resources/drive_c'
 * 7) From the Select Startfile dialog, choose the glpscite.exe option &mdash; this will set the resulting application to start up in the IDE environment.

At this point you should have a working GLPK Lab application. The first time startup will be slow due to initializations.

You may need to edit SciTEGlobal.properties so the menu item 'Options>Use Monospaced Fonts' works correctly. To do so, start the GLPK Lab application and select 'Open Global Options File' from the Options menu. This opens SciTEGlobal.properties for editing. Insert the following lines right after the first line, then save and close the file. The changes take effect immediately after saving. font.monospace=font:Lucida Console,size:8  # Monospaced font style.errorlist.32=$(font.monospace)       # Set output pane to monospace
 * 1) SETTINGS FOR MacOS
 * 1) END OF SETTINGS FOR MacOS

There are some things to keep in mind when using GPLK Lab under Wine:
 * A small wine glass icon will appear in the Mac menu bar after you start the GLPK Lab application &mdash; this is your interface to the underlying Wine system.
 * The file menu within the GLPK Lab application blends your Mac folder directory with the Windows directories established under Wine. The root to the Mac directory structure is under '/'.  Open the contents of GLPK Lab if you want to browse the Windows directories with Finder.

PyCharm IDE (Community Edition) for GLPK/MathProg and CBC/MathProg in Mac OS X
PyCharm Community Edition, a cross platform IDE for Python. However, it can be also used for other computer programming languages and scripting. Scripting can be added thru "External Tools" (i.e. (PyCharm) Preferences -> Editor -> External Tools).

PyCharm IDE for GLPK/MathProg and COIN-OR CBC Solver for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

The pdf shows how to install GLPK/MathProg in Mac OS X and configure the PyCharm External Tools for GLPK/MathProg and COIN-OR CBC Solver.

Other IDE initiatives
The cross-platform page describes projects that should run on Mac OS X systems.

TextAdept, an extensible open source text editor based on Lua, has been mentioned as another possibility. The state of this initiative is not currently known.