# Need help installing Appscript on MAC OSX 10.4.11 Power PC

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-appscript-on-mac-osx-10-4-11-power-pc/195811>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 30, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-appscript-on-mac-osx-10-4-11-power-pc/195811 "2010-09-30T15:55:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jalbers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@jalbers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jalbers)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-appscript-on-mac-osx-10-4-11-power-pc/195811/1 "2010-09-30T15:55:44Z")

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I downloaded appscript and it is unzipped. I started up terminal and  
changed directories to the folder rb-appscript-0.5.3 and I think that  
I need to do the following three commands to get it installed:

ruby extconf.rb  
make  
sudo make install

after typing “ruby extconf.rb”, I get an error message saying “can’t  
find header files for ruby.”

The documentation said something about “Please note that the version  
of Ruby included with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is missing the header  
files needed to build appscript on PPC-based Macs.”

I am not very experienced with doing anything at the command prompt,  
and I am starting to learn Ruby. I don’t want to have to install a  
new version of ruby. I probably will mess things up even more. I  
also don’t want to pay $200 to upgrade to OSX 10.5 which is the  
highest version of OSX that a Power PC can run. Is there any simple  
way to get the header files (whatever they are ??) set up so that the  
extconf.rb will work?

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**Author:** ![jalbers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@jalbers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jalbers)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 11:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-appscript-on-mac-osx-10-4-11-power-pc/195811/2 "2010-10-06T11:00:22Z")

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On Sep 30, 2010, at 6:55 , jalbers wrote:

> The documentation said something about “Please note that the version  
> of Ruby included with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is missing the header  
> files needed to build appscript on PPC-based Macs.”
> 
> I am not very experienced with doing anything at the command prompt,  
> and I am starting to learn Ruby. I don’t want to have to install a  
> new version of ruby.

I’m afraid that’s really your best option. The version of Ruby that  
shipped with 10.4 was, if I recall correctly, pretty darn old even at  
the time it shipped. 1.8.2? Or maybe 1.8.4? You will probably have fewer  
difficulties in the long run if you install 1.8.7 or the shiny new  
1.9.2.

However, I think you should be able to find a newer version of ruby that  
can be installed without using the command prompt. Somebody has built  
.pkg files for installing Ruby, so it can be installed like any normal  
Mac app.