Help running ./configure script

Question

Trying to install 3rd party software. Attempting to run ./configure. Terminal keeps saying "No such file or directory." Can anyone provide me a little more info on how to run this script than the reference book I'm using?

Answer 1

the file name is simpson-1.1.2-macosx-intel.tar
I notice that the file has no file name beyond .tar Does this mean I still need to decompress it?
Before I started using Terminal with this file, I (may have) decompressed it just by double clicking on the file. This created a folder and in the folder was a readme document and 3 other folder, one containing documents and the others for the /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib directories.
Here are some of the instuctions given in the INSTALL document (being new to Unix, these instructions arent perfectly clear to me):
Basic Installation
==================
These are generic installation instructions.
The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses
those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package.
It may also create one or more `.h' files containing system-dependent
definitions. Finally, it creates a shell script `config.status' that
you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file
`config.cache' that saves the results of its tests to speed up
reconfiguring, and a file `config.log' containing compiler output
(useful mainly for debugging `configure').
If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, please try
to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and mail
diffs or instructions to the address given in the `README' so they can
be considered for the next release. If at some point `config.cache'
contains results you don't want to keep, you may remove or edit it.
The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
called `autoconf'. You only need `configure.in' if you want to change
it or regenerate `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
The simplest way to compile this package is:
1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
`./configure' to configure the package for your system. If you're
using `csh' on an old version of System V, you might need to type
`sh ./configure' instead to prevent `csh' from trying to execute
`configure' itself.
Running `configure' takes awhile. While running, it prints some
messages telling which features it is checking for.
2. Type `make' to compile the package. ....