WineBottler Packaging

How to make a standalone macOS version of a windows app

 These notes are for Apple Macintosh users to package up a windoze app for use on macOS/OS-X. The idea is that this standalone app can then be used on any macOS system without the user having to install additional software. 

 Rationale

  • I was teaching an undergraduate circuit theory class in a university that supplies computing labs that are optimised for "office productivity". Engineering students often have to create an "island of computing sanity" in which to work so we set about practicing this survival skill. I recall my RMIT students setting up similar islands back around 2000 when I was an academic.
  • While working as a research engineer at Mt Stromlo (AITC) in 2017, I was once sitting across the morning tea/coffee room from the ANU vice chancellor Brian Schmidt as he was chatting to some students. Well Brian might be the ANU VC but he is still a scientist at heart and I heard him explain to a Physics student about the need for a scientific computing "island" in a typical university.
  • And no, this post is not about a fluidic WINE. 

Procedure

  • We assume that you have an Intel-based Mac. This example uses the windows application MicroCAP to package up for standalone macOS use.

  • Install and setup of macOS “winebottler” tools comprising Wine which allows MS applications to run, and WineBottler which allows MS applications to be packaged up as standalone OS-X apps:
    • 1) Download and install WineBottler Development Version from http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/ - this is a rather neat piece of work so don’t be put off by the author’s use of advertising to help support this great free tool;
    • 2) Make sure you drag both Wine and WineBottler to the Applications folder (recall you are installing two apps).

  • Example of the use of the winebottler tool to package up MicroCAP:

    • 3) Obtain the windoze app

      Search for the MicroCAP student version with search query spectrum-soft.com: download MicroCAP demo.zip and then download the latest MicroCAP student version from http://www.spectrum-soft.com/demodownnew.shtm (which was http://www.spectrum-soft.com/down/demo.zip in August 2014);

    • 4) Install the windoze app using Wine but do NOT run it

      Unzip file demo.zip, open the resulting folder with Finder and then open setup.exe with Wine.app (this is the default but right-click on setup.exe and use open-with just to be sure). You will now be asked to launch setup.exe with either Wine or WineBottler - choose Wine. Let this setup run with default settings until the FINISH step is reached but do not take this step just yet - you must clear the options at finish that will launch MicroCAP and a document browser (we don’t want to run MicroCAP yet), and then select FINISH. You now have your own setup of MicroCAP as file Library/Application\ Support/Wine/prefixes/microcap/drive_c/MC11demo/mc11demo.exe with various support files in its folder. Your browser may be able to access this folder at URL file:///Users/MyName/Library/Application%20Support/Wine/prefixes/microcap/drive_c/MC11demo/ (where MyName is your Mac OS-X user name).

    • 5) Either
      1. Running MicroCAP with Wine
        To run your copy of MicroCAP, open file Library/Application\ Support/Wine/prefixes/microcap/drive_c/MC11demo/mc11demo.exe with the default Wine.app and confirm launching it with Wine.

        or
      2. Packaging it up as a OS-X app for more convenient use later
        To package up a standalone OS-X version, open file Library/Application\ Support/Wine/prefixes/microcap/drive_c/MC11demo/mc11demo.exe with Wine.app but switch to using WineBottler when asked. A packaging menu will appear and you should choose the option to package up mc11demo.exe with the files in its surrounding folder. The resulting OS-X app can be inspected using the Finder's show package contents.

 FAQ
References

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)