Ansel on Mac

Hi Erik, many thanks! I'm working on the same goal but with the intention to compile on Apple silicon. I forked ansel here and commit some changes in particular in the packaging/macosx area - but not only. Build is running through and Ansel (I took the liberty to put a capital letter) works quite stable but I still have minor issues:

• GTK 3.24.37 version of hombrew still causing some issues, in particular in local menues (selecting an entry doesn't always work)
• Roboto fonts still need to be manually installed and "Roboto Condensed" font still creates a warning that it couldn't be found at start.
• Long time stability isn't garanteed due to version changes of a lot of dependencies. Time will say if this is stable. That's the reason why I didn't create a Pull Request until now.

Maybe we can learn from each others experience...

Hi Laurent, good work on the fork! I completely agree with you that dependency management is one of the big challenges for of long term stability. The dependency management on my machine is a bit of a mess. I initially wanted to install all dependencies via MacPorts (as I have had better experience with that than with brew), but after a lot of miserable debugging I ended up having some dependencies install with brew and some with MacPorts. I am not sure what the best method would be going forward, but it is definitely not the way I have set it up now. Perhaps pinning the dependency versions an install them in an isolated build environment would be the most “stable” approach? but I don’t know. I also encountered a regression with Apple's bundeled compiler in Command Line Tools 14.3, so it is not just dependency management that pose a risk for long term build stability.

I had some issues with menus not working with GTK 3.24.34 a while back, but I patched it manually after following the guidance here, and I haven’t noticed any issues since then. But perhaps I haven’t used Ansel enough to encounter an issue yet. I haven’t really touched the roboto fonts, so I don’t really know about that.

Hi Erik, thanks for pointing out the issue with GTK and menus. I experienced this problem in earlier tries but it is solved with the latest releases. My problem is choosing a menu entry e.g. in "Filmic rgb / Options / Color science". Choosing an entry endup often by selecting the first entry. Only with insisting or with the keyboard another entry can be selected. Strange. I'm curious if you have the same issue.

I created a file to record dependencies, to be at least capable to "recover" when necessary. I didn't get issues with the Xcode compiler so far.

Strange, I havn't experienced the issue that you are describing. If I go to "Filmic rgb / Options / Color science" and click on any of the options, it is chosen correctly every time. I don't have to "force" the correct choice with the keyboard. It might be a bit far fetched, but the only significant difference between our build systems are GTK 3.24.37 (brew) and GTK 3.24.34+patch (MacPorts) so the issue might be there. I assume you have a M1/M2 mac? I don't know if it is possible, but it would be interesting to know if you experience the same issue with the build "ansel-v0.0.0+287~g4937a8b41" listed here (that is the build I am running at the moment). EDIT: link

This is awesome! Thank you for sharing your efforts. I'll try the build in the coming days

Hi Erik, yes I'm running an M2 Pro mac mini. I downloaded your build but it doesn't start. It claims libgmic is missing and I cannot install it on my mac and run mixed code (ansel on x86_64, library on arm64). I tried the build of darktable 4.2.1 and I get a similar behaviour... in both build after a second the entry can be selected. BUT I also tried my build of darktable 3.8.1 (yes I got it running on my M2 mac as well but broke somewhere the building process...) and there it simply works!

I will follow two paths:

• Even if unprobable, exclude that the issue is due to a local problem. If someone following this discussion can test my image (at own risk of course) on a latest Ventura 13.3.1 arm64 system, that would be great: https://filedn.com/lxq2oIO61Rdjuk1dvBFLayu/Ansel-v0.0.0%2B297~g092df1dfe-arm64.dmg
• Try to understand the differences between the two builds: libraries, darktable/ansel code

But beside that, Ansel runs pretty stable! I'm quite close of retiring darktable 3.8.1 - my last production version...

Thanks for giving it a try. It is not unlikely that I stuffed up somewhere and built using a shared library or something. If the build complains that it is missing libgmic then I assume it won’t work for anybody else either. I will take a look on my side as well.

Short news: It's a local problem. I used a virtual maschine with a fresh installed macos and have no issue with the combo boxes... At least an issue less!

Short news (2): I solved my issue: The mouse double click setting in macos was shifted to "slow". This was translated in GTK+ (gtk-double-click-time) with a value of 1800 ms... that's really slow. Back to default value and the issue is gone.

I will continue to chase the font issue now.

Short news (3): I created a new image here for Apple silicon (M1/M2). What's new:

• Roboto fonts are now integrated in the app bundle. Issue with condensed ones solved (maybe break with other fonts...).
• Ansel icon is now bound to the app.
• Newest libs from homebrew built in, without breaking the app (so far I could test).
• Build for macos 13.3.1.

Feel free to test (at your own risk of course...)!

Firstly big thanks to @Aurélien Pierre for Ansel.

Thanks for looking into this @Laurent Perraut I'm interesting in using Ansel (current Darktable user) on Mac too but for Intel. Trying to build Ansel using your scripts I'm getting a Segmentation Fault in iop_profile.c

clang: fatal error: unable to execute command: Segmentation fault: 11
Apple clang version 14.0.3 (clang-1403.0.22.14.1)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin22.5.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin
[ 46%] Building C object bin/CMakeFiles/lib_ansel.dir/common/tags.c.o
[ 46%] Building C object bin/CMakeFiles/lib_ansel.dir/common/undo.c.o
make[2]: *** [bin/CMakeFiles/lib_ansel.dir/common/iop_profile.c.o] Error 254
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.

I have removed -DBUILD_SSE2_CODEPATHS=OFF from your script as this is for Intel.

If I remove -DBINARY_PACKAGE_BUILD=ON it will build cleanly.

Sorry if this is a n00b question, I'm not very experienced with C (I'm actually a Java developer). I'm wondering if its a local issue with brew as I use it for work tools as well.

Running Ventura 13.4.

A totally cosmetic issue I have fixed locally is to change the 'heavy check' unicode 2714 to a normal 'check' unicode 2713 in the `import.c` file as on my Mac at least Unicode 2713 is available in a lot more fonts (including Roboto). This fixes the missing character in the Import dialog. See below:

I'm not sure if Aurélien is planning on re-writing any of this, I can create a PR but I don't want to waste his time if that is the case.

I tried ansel-v0.0.0%2B336~g551be1d00.tar.gz on my intel NUC5 running Monterey. No direct launching , but running first ansel executable in terminal and then clicking ansel.app, it's OK ! Maybe could you find how to follow the usual way ...

Hi all, I successfully compiled and launched ansel with commit a8f73ed51b389015b89dbe38857f652b7439c7bf from https://github.com/lologor/ansel on MacBook Pro M1 with MacOS Sonoma 14.1.1.

I have installed clang 16 from homebrew, OpenMP, zlib, and all the other dependencies...

Steps (or add CMAKE_C/CXX to build.sh)

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/ansel -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/llvm/16.0.6/bin/clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/llvm/16.0.6/bin/clang++ -DBINARY_PACKAGE_BUILD=OFF "/Users/luca/Git/ansel"
cmake --build . -- -j4

Anyway, there are some aspects to be fixed:

1. A lot of: ansel/src/develop/masks/detail.c:230:3: warning: loop not vectorized: the optimizer was unable to perform the requested transformation; the transformation might be disabled or specified as part of an unsupported transformation ordering [-Wpass-failed=transform-warning] #pragma omp parallel for simd default(none)
2. /Users/luca/Git/ansel/src/is_supported_platform.h:58:9: warning: Building without SSE2 is highly experimental. [-W#pragma-messages] #pragma message "Building without SSE2 is highly experimental."
3. /Users/luca/Git/ansel/src/is_supported_platform.h:59:9: warning: Expect a LOT of functionality to be broken. You have been warned. [-W#pragma-messages] #pragma message "Expect a LOT of functionality to be broken. You have been warned."
4. And at startup:

[dt_detect_cpu_features] Not implemented for this architecture.
[dt_detect_cpu_features] Please contribute a patch.
[dt_init] SSE2 instruction set is unavailable.
[dt_init] expect a LOT of functionality to be broken. you have been warned.

(process:9390): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 21:58:49.259: g_object_set: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
[dt_detect_cpu_features] Not implemented for this architecture.
[dt_detect_cpu_features] Please contribute a patch.
[dt_codepaths_init] will be using experimental plain OpenMP SIMD codepath.
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152
[dt_pthread_create] info: bumping pthread's stacksize from 524288 to 2097152

(ansel:9390): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 21:58:52.419: invalid cast from 'GtkMenuBar' to 'GtkWindow'

(ansel:9390): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 21:58:52.419: gtk_window_add_accel_group: assertion 'GTK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

I will try to rebase on the upstream repo, and I hope to find solutions for those problems with time... Thank you for your work!

Since two weeks I'm building a version of Ansel for MacOS arm64 (Ventura 13.3.1 or higher required) every week. All commits to date are included. In addition I fixed some GTK issues appearing on MacOS with the import and export dialogs - and some of the issues mentioned by Luca.

Be aware that the current version of Ansel (https://github.com/aurelienpierreeng/ansel) is work-in-progress. Aurélien and the developers are currently re-writing / re-factoring a lot of legacy code. You may experience issues and not working functions. But you will also enjoy the increased in speed as well!

Here the download link: https://filedn.eu/lJJ6pRXjWFxSzF0qSaw2PjF/Ansel-v0.0.0%2B653~g0507839b5-arm64.dmg

Thanks for testing and giving feedback!

Dear Ansel-on-Mac developers, what is the current status of your project(s)?