To install the GNU compilers as described in this HOWTO, you'll need the following:
Note that you'll need to follow the instructions on this page prior to installing Open MPI if you don't already have some set of compilers installed. If you have a multi-core Mac (most should by now) and would like to run codes that use MPI to distribute processing across multiple processor cores, you should also check out the HOWTO for installing Open MPI on Mac OS X.
This means that using command line utilities such as compilers is straightforward, making coding on your Mac easy. One of the nice things about Mac OS X is that you have a polished user interface atop a Unix operating system. This HOWTO will guide you through the installation of the GNU C, C++ and Fortran compilers on Mac OS X.
