WFDB quick start for Mac OS X (Darwin)

1. Install Mac OS X Developer Tools.
   The developer tools (including the X11 SDK, see below) can be downloaded from http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/. This software is also included in current Mac OS X CD sets.
   
   
2. Install an HTTP client library (optional).
   If neither libcurl nor libwww has been installed already, install one of them now.
   • You will be able to use the WFDB software to read files on local disk drives and CD-ROMs whether or not you install one of these libraries.
   • Direct access from WFDB applications to data files on remote web and FTP servers (NETFILES) is possible only if you install libcurl or libwww.
   • Direct access from WFDB applications to password-protected data files on remote web and FTP servers requires libcurl 7.12.0 or later.
   • If you skip this step now, you may install libcurl or libwww and recompile the WFDB library later to enable NETFILES access for all of your WFDB applications. It will not be necessary to recompile the applications themselves.
   
   
3. Install X11 for Mac OS X, the X11 SDK, and XView (optional).
   • You will not be able to compile or use WAVE unless you have installed X11, the X11 SDK, and XView, but none of the other WFDB applications require these packages. Other components of PhysioToolkit, such as plt and SEMIA, require X11 and XView.
   • At this time, it is necessary to use the XView binaries available here. Sources are available here, but compiling them under Mac OS X is not straightforward.
   • The currently available version does not include the textedit application, which is WAVE's default menu editor. This will not prevent you from using WAVE, but you should set the EDITOR environment variable to the pathname of your preferred text editor before running WAVE if you plan to edit WAVE's menu file. For example, you might add

     export EDITOR=/usr/bin/emacs
     

     to the file named .bashrc in your home directory.
   
   
4. Download the current version of the WFDB Software Package as sources or binaries. The binary distribution is experimental and may not be up-to-date; we strongly recommend following the procedure described below for compiling the software from the sources instead. If you plan to compile WFDB applications that are not included in the binary package, please start with the sources.
   

   If you download the sources (recommended):

   • Unpack the archive of sources:

     tar xfvz wfdb.tar.gz
     

     If your web browser decompressed the archive, use this command instead:

     tar xfv wfdb.tar
     

     Unpacking the archive creates a directory with a name of the form wfdb-10.m.n.

   • Enter this directory, configure, and install the package:

     cd wfdb-10.m.n
     ./configure
     sudo make install
     

     The sudo command prompts for your password, needed in order to install the package in subdirectories of /usr. If you do not have sudoer permissions, you may install the package in any writable directory by running make directly, adding an appropriate option:

     make install WFDBROOT=/path/to/another/directory
     

     Note that in this case you will need to add WFDBROOT/bin to your PATH, and WFDBROOT/lib to your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.
   • (Optional) Check that the WFDB library and applications have been correctly compiled and installed:

     make check
     

     This step compiles a short program that exercises the WFDB library, prints a summary of test results, and prompts you to press <Enter>. After you have done so, the WFDB applications are tested. The tests are very short (typically less than a second each), except that the last one (xform using NETFILES) may take up to a minute if you have a slow or inoperative Internet connection. If any application test fails, its output can be found in the checkpkg subdirectory of the WFDB source tree; compare this output with the files of the same names that can be found in the checkpkg/expected subdirectory.
   
   If you download the binaries (not recommended):
   • Unpacking the archive of binaries creates a directory with a name of the form wfdb-10.m.n-PowerMacintosh-Darwin. Copy its contents into the same-named subdirectories of /usr:

              cd wfdb-10.m.n-PowerMacintosh-Darwin
     	 sudo cp -pr . /usr
     

5. If XView is installed, test WAVE.
   • Start the X server if it is not running already, and open an xterm window:

              startx &
     

   • In the xterm window, type the command:

              wave -r mitdb/200 -a atr
     

   Note that WAVE's menus (marked with a ) are opened using a right click; if you have a one-button mouse, simulate a right click by pressing and holding the apple key while clicking. Annotation editing requires the use of the middle button, which can be simulated by using the option key while clicking.

   If you have not used WAVE before, you may want to follow through the tutorial material in the beginning of the WAVE User's Guide.
   
   

6. Read the manuals. Really! :-) If you want to write your own software to work with PhysioBank data, begin with the WFDB Programmer's Guide. To learn about the wide variety of existing software that can be used to study PhysioBank data, read the WFDB Applications Guide and the WAVE User's Guide.

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Updated Wednesday, 18-Jan-2006 10:36:38 EST