Note (5 Feb 2012): WineBottler doesn’t work. Use Wineskin instead. Instructions are here.

Notes (12 Feb 2012): Pending a full revision of the instructions, I’m mirroring Matthew Giovanni’s instructions with some light editing.

Instructions

1. Download and install Wineskin.
2. Download the OpenBUGS installer for Windows or the WinBUGS installer (direct link). I’ll refer to your download as xBUGS from here on in.
3. Open Wineskin and select “+” to install the most recent version of WINE as an “engine” for Wineskin.
4. Select “Create Blank New Wrapper” and name it OpenBUGS or WinBUGS, and Wineskin will create an .app file in your user folder (e.g., /Users/aidan/Applications/Wineskin).
5. Drag your new OpenBUGS app to your apps folder, open it, and select “Install Windows Software”, and browse to and select your BUGS exe file. Your new Wineskin wrapper (in this case, OpenBUGS.app) should then initiate the setup wizard for your BUGS program.

If you installed WinBUGS instead of OpenBUGS, you’ll have to go through the standard patching process described on the WinBUGS website.

Gotchas

• If you’re looking to call your xBUGS installation from R, you’re stuck with WinBUGS. The BRugs package, which is used to talk to OpenBUGS, is Windows-only.

Resources

• WinBUGS at WineHQ
• BUGS for Mac OS X