[Ironmike]

Is there a version of FRED or any known method of installing FRED on a Mac?  I'd like to create some missions and keep the 3rd party community going but this seems like a crucial piece of software to have!

-Or is it there already and I'm colossally stupid?

[General Battuta]

We're working on a cross platform version called wxFRED but it's currently Windows only due to dependencies.

[blowfish]

In the mean time you can always edit missions in TextEdit   It's a pain in the ass but it's doable.

[Ironmike]

Now that's a thought, maybe I'll look at some existing examples and give that a try.

I know you were probably joking but I'm nuts.

[Cyborg17]

He's not joking, but it is really hard, especially if you're not used to what Sexps do.

[Ironmike]

I actually took a few minutes and opened some example .fs2 files and deduced a few things by context.  I've played around with the text and was actually able to effect some of the changes I'd like to see on an existing user-created mission just as a jump-off point.

What would be really helpful is a list of possible variables, or terms in text form that would be equivalent to the options allowed in the editor.  I'm curious if this already exists somewhere, otherwise I'll muddle through.  Does this exist somewhere?

[niffiwan]

These links might help:
http://fredzone.hard-light.net/freddocs/
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/FREDDocs/
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FreeSpace_2_Mission_File_Format

Otherwise, the documentation is in FRED itself, and the code.

Some people have reported being able to run various versions of FRED under wine on Linux, I don't run OSX myself but that might work for you (I think wine is available for OSX?)

[karajorma]

If you're determined to FRED using a text editor I strongly advise going to the launcher's advanced section and ticking the Output SEXPs to sexps.html option. This will then generate a file containing a list of all the SEXPs and what each argument is meant to be.

[Ironmike]

These responses are extremely helpful, many thanks.