the language machine on Mac OS X 10.4

[Me]

In article <dsushi$nkn$1 at digitaldaemon.com>, Peri Hankey says...
>
>I was wondering if anyone had tried to build my language machine on Mac 
>OS X 10.4?
>
>If one takes the tar.gz source for a package that builds on intel/amd 
>linux, what has to be done to build it on Mac after installing  xcode 
>and gdcmac? Or is it still just ./configure and make?
>

there are two problems:

-shared  //warning  urecognized option 

and

ar cru lib/.libs/liblm.a
ar: no archive members specified
usage:  ar -d [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-TLsv] archive file ...
ar -m [-abiTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -p [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -q [-cTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-cuTLsv] archive file ...
ar -r [-abciuTLsv] position archive file ...
ar -t [-TLsv] archive [file ...]
ar -x [-ouTLsv] archive [file ...]
make[1]: *** [lib/liblm.la] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2
MAKE EXITS HERE

The synopsis of ar differs between gnu and apple version.
Anyway what ar is supposed to do?
And why do you put the libraries in an hidden directory?

The good news are getting a working copy of lm is simple:
compile all sources and then link the right pieces.
Note: Working means executes fpCalc.