pasting the next few lines, though there are many more after this:

tried /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin and succeeded
verbose( 1):/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin: dlopen(/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin, 10): Library not loaded: @rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

a

@didipiman Ok. What's the output of this:

otool -L /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin:
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1281.100.1)
@rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
/usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 902.1.0)

@didipiman And now this:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin:

@didipiman How about:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so: is not an object file

@didipiman Hm.

Try:

install_name_tool -id /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

error: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/install_name_tool: input file: /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so is not a Mach-O file

file /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, BuildID[sha1]=6d6066fc49fc9c4a1dd5db75d614ea958f61ae67, stripped

@didipiman Oops, try this:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib:
@rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

@didipiman I don't really understand Macos' toolset. Give this a try and see if you can instantiate the object afterward:

install_name_tool -id /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

tried instantiating it as [helios], as [pd_helios] to no avail. unless i should try with other paths as the object class...

@didipiman For some reason the library isn't finding that libusb-1.0.0.dylib dependency. You'll need to fish around the OSX docs about install_name_tool to figure out how to ensure it's in the correct search path.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, @jancsika
will try and report back if i succeed

@didipiman Sounds good.

One thing you can do is use otool to inspect the paths for a pre-existing external library that has a dependency. Try fluid~:

1. Make sure fluid~ will instantiate properly on a canvas.
2. Find the fluid~ lib in your Purr Data app bundle. Use otool -L to inspect its dependencies. It should have a dependency on a fluidsynth library which I ship with Purr Data.
3. Go to the directory in the app bundle where that fluidsynth lib lives.
4. Use otool to figure out its install name

Once you get that info, put your libusb dylib library in the exact same directory inside the app bundle as the fluidsynth library. Then use install_name_tool/otool to set the same path relationship helios and libusb binaries that you saw with fluid~ and fluidsynth

I'll try to do the same the next time I get access to a mac machine.

@didipiman Note: you can also use the script purr-data/packages/darwin_app/embed_MacOSX_dependencies.sh from the repo as a reference for how this works.. IIRC it only looks for deps that have homebrew path, so I'm not sure that it will properly pick up that libusb dylib. But you can at least have a look at the script to see how it works.

thanks. i did that and then i tried something that was in the helios documentation, even though it was supposedly for El Capitan, which is not my OS.

installed homebrew from https://brew.sh/
then on a terminal i ran:

brew install libusb 

and that was it. pd now loads helios. (hooray).

however, i still get thousands of errors printed on the post window upon startup. my startup preferences are obviously wrong. is there a template for a neatly organised startup preferences file i can check out to make sure mine looks as similar as that? or at least, what’s the general idea? i mean if there is a search path to /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra
do i still need to specify other paths for individual libraries such as:

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/ggee
/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/zexy
/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/cyclone

and so on?

many many thanks!!!