installing NEURON

download the OS installer for Mac
to get nrn to run, I also had to install X11 as described on their website

compiling mod files

the files in the mechanism directory must be compiled before they are usable
to do this on mac, drag the entire mechanism directory into the mknrndll function in Applications
- this results in the creation of an x86_64 subfolder in the mechanism folder

running

to run, cd into the mechanism directory
running nrngui run_act.hoc should open the NEURON gui and display a plot of an action potential with the current settings
run_main.hoc has more complicated settings