The curses-based (text-GUI) CDF tools, i.e., cdfedit and cdfexport, can't be
built as the curses package shipped in Mac OS X (10.1.x or 10.2) 
doesn't have the files that are required by the aforementioned tools.
To build and install the the tools mentioned above, the following 
steps should be taken. 

1. Download a separate pre-compiled ncurses package, ncurses-macosx.tar.gz,
   from the nssdcftp machine where the latest CDF distribution package is 
   available (nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/standards/cdf/dist/cdf30/unix). 

2. Uncompress and install the downloaded package in step 1 into the directory 
   where you want to put it.

      gunzip ncurses-macosx.tar.gz ; tar xvf ncurses-macosx.tar

3. Modify the Makefile in the CDF home directory that is the place where 
   the CDF distribution is installed.

   Edit the Makefile. Locate the macosx section and modify the lines that
   are marked with <----- as following:

CURSES_mach_macosx=yes                                                <-----
CC_mach_macosx=cc
LD_mach_macosx=libtool
PIC_mach_macosx=     
COPTIONS_mach_macosx=-I/Users/cdf/cdf30-dist/ncurses/include          <-----
COPTIONSld_mach_macosx=
CURSESLIB_mach_macosx=-L/Users/cdf/cdf30-dist/ncurses/lib -lncurses   <-----

   NOTE:
       The above example shows that /Users/cdf/cdf30-dist is the name of 
       the directory where the curses package is installed on your system 
       in step 2.

4. Run the "make" command (even if you had already done so):

   make OS=mach ENV=macosx all

   Note: Ignore those "unused definition" and "unused multiple definitions"
         messages if they pop up during the compilation/linking step.

5. If you have Mac OS 10.2, skip this section and go to step 6.
   If you have Mac OS 10.1.x, you may need to follow the instructions
   in this section.

   Set the environment variable TERMINFO to point to the terminfo directory 
   in the ncurses's directory. Use the following command(s) to set it up.
 
   Under tcsh, enter:
   setenv TERMINFO /Users/cdf/cdf30-dist/ncurses/share/terminfo

   Under Bourne shell, enter:
   TERMINFO=/Users/cdf/cdf30-dist/ncurses/share/terminfo
   export TERMINFO

   Under Korn, Bash, and posixSHELL shell, enter:
   export TERMINFO=/Users/cdf/cdf30-dist/ncurses/share/terminfo

   Note: While the curses man page indicates that /usr/share/terminfo 
         will be checked if the TERMINFO is not defined, it appears that
         that is not the case under Mac OS X 10.1. No matter where terminfo 
         is, always define the TERMINFO variable.

6. Install the (new) tools with the following command. 
   
     make install