I'm running pyferret on an M1 mac mini, even though the binaries are (or seem to me to be) for x86_64 . macOS is designed to be able to run binaries built for Intel Macs. (Use the "file" command on the dynamic libraries included in the conda package. See *footnote*.)
I install miniconda via homebrew and use the conda commands to install pyferret: Basically I use just these three lines
brew install miniconda
conda update conda --all --yes
conda create -n FERRET -c conda-forge pyferret ferret_datasets --yes
But, I did this a long time ago. I don't know if this method works today.
Regards,
Ryo
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(*footnote*)