To install SLAPP on Macintosh follow the instructions from this short video:
For reference purposes, here is a quick recap of the main stages:
- Download the file for your processor type: x64 or ARM64. Find the correct type from About This Mac. On the ‘chip’ or ‘processor’ line, if you find the word ‘Intel’ you want the x64; if you find ‘MX’ (for some integer X) you want ARM.
- Click to open the downloaded file, double click the large icon, and follow instructions.
- You will not be able to do meaningful work in SLAPP until you have some assignments and/or exercises to open. To download from the website: Click the download link, and move the downloaded folder to a desired location.
- If you are installing an updated version of SLAPP, you will be given an option to install over the previous installation. I most cases, this is what you want.
- Once the program is installed, there are some technical matters to be aware of:
- Hot Keys: SLAPP uses multiple key combinations. These are not ‘hot keys’ of the sort that work even when an app is not in the active window. However other apps may use the same key combinations as hot keys. If hotkey combinations do overlap with combinations used by SLAPP it is likely that the hotkey functions will fire when the combination is typed. SLAPP does its best to avoid standard Mac and PC combinations. If there is overlap, most apps have a means of changing their hot-key combinations.
- Dead Keys: There can be a related problem with system dead keys. These place an accent on the next typed character and are a function of your system’s keyboard map. You want system dead keys off. From System Settings / Keyboard / Input Sources, select ‘show input menu in menu bar’ (this will let you select among keyboard maps from a dropdown on the menu bar). Then you can choose which keyboards to show in the menu by the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons. From ‘+’ select ‘other’ at the bottom of the language list and add ‘Unicode Hex Input’.
- Right Click: SLAPP makes use of right-click on the mouse. There are different means of performing right-click on a Mac, including (having a two-button mouse or) from System Settings / Mouse / Secondary Click.
- Function Keys: SLAPP makes use of the function keys F1 – F12. These keys are often assigned to special functions (for volume and the like). If this is so, it is possible to change the default behavior between regular F-key and the special assignments. On Mac OS Sonoma, there are controls from System Settings / Keyboard / Keyboard Shortcuts / Function Keys, and then again from System Settings / Desktop & Dock / Shortcuts / Keyboard & Mouse Shortcuts. Whichever default behavior is selected, holding down the fn-key at the same time as you type an F-key gives the non-default behavior.