I'm very new to OS X and XCode, so please don't assume I know all terminology.
I've been developing my game in Linux for a year. Now I'm moving to OS X with XCode. I saw that in OS X, all the applications, even games, are only one package (ending with a hidden .app extension if I'm correct). And I want to use that system as well: one single user-friendly .app package, which can be started by double clicking on it.
Question 1: Is a .app package one single file or is it only a folder?
I started a new project in XCode using the Command line application option in the wizard. Is this the correct choice? Or should I've chosen something else to make a .app application? I've chosen that one because of I'm using SDL, which makes the window automatically.
Now, I finally managed it to make my whole game compile in XCode (using SDL, OpenGL, Box2D), by linking a lot of libraries (SDL.framework, SDL_image.framework, libBox2D.dylib, Cocoa.framework, OpenGL.framework).
I want to add resources for my game in the .app package as well and of course being able to read them.
Question 2: How to work with .app packages in XCode includes resources for my game?
Thanks in advance.
Hopefully, someone can help me out quickly because, tomorrow, I'm going on holiday without internet access.
Question 1:
It is a directory. You can examine the contents of a .app bundle via the command line or by using "Show Package Contents" in Finder.
Question 1.5:
You did not want to pick "Command Line Application." You most likely wanted to pick "Cocoa Application" or maybe "Carbon Application." You can read more about the two frameworks at Apple's dev site: http://developer.apple.com
Question 2:
The easiest way is to add your resource files to your Xcode project. There are other ways, but most people don't have to worry about that. In order to read the resource files out of the application bundle, you have to use the NSBundle Objective-C class.
Not asked:
If you use Cocoa, you will have to use Objective-C. Even if you don't, you should learn it anyway if you are going to be writing code for OS X.
Related
I am building a C++ OpenGL card game in Xcode 4.3.3, with the intention of running it on both 64-bit and 32-bit Macs, which is not my problem. My problem is that I have reached a point in the development of the program where I would like to test that it works on a different 32-bit Mac (mine is 64-bit) without having to install Xcode. This, obviously, requires me exporting it as an .app. I can find and run the exported Unix Executable File from my project, after some cd'ing, through Terminal, but that is undesirable for me and the intended audience of the program. I have trawled the google and Stack Overflow, looking for anything to help me, but all the things mentioning Archiving seem to have been unsuccessful with my particular project, and I think that's because it's a C++ command line tool project. So, can someone please help me export my project as a .app?
Thanks in advance.
The simplest way of doing this would be to create a Cocoa project, go to 'build phases' and remove all the objective-c frameworks from the 'link with libraries' build phase, remove any objective-c files added by the template (app delegate, etc.) and then replace main.c with your main.cpp file.
There's nothing really special about a Cocoa project except for the fact that it links against Cocoa and calls NSApplicationMain() from its main() function.
There are also a bunch of .plist entries used by Cocoa which you'll no longer need. But they won't affect the way OS X treats your application.
I'm searching for an XCode Settings solution but here's my current way to create an app:
You have to take your binary file (let say myapp) and put it in "MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/myapp" then it can now be launched as a .app. That's a trick.
Just go to the targets folder in the file navigator on the left, and there will be an executable listed there. Left click on that executable and click "show in finder". (I'm describing from memory so I may have the exact details wrong.) The file path is ridiculously long (there is an arbitrary alphanumerical pathname involved, I have no idea why), so you probably won't be able to find it with the command line.
If you want you can change the extension of the file from nothing to ".app", it shouldn't affect the nature of the file at all. Also if you want a custom icon, you can "get info" on it in the finder, then click on the icon in the info window, and use Cmd-V to paste it in (obviously you have to have your icon copied to the clipboard). There is also a way to do this inside of Xcode, but I don't remember it.
I'd like to download Qt. I tried to download it from Qt's website but this gives me an exe file and since I've got a limited account when I try to run it it asks for an admin password. I've searched the web for a way for a limited account to install Qt but I haven't found anything. Could someone please help me find a solution?
In case it matters, I'm using Code::Blocks and Windows 7.
You could download the free software source code and compile and build it on your machine (that takes about a whole night, or maybe more). Don't forget to configure the build appropriately (I don't know Windows, but on Linux I'll suggest explicitly setting the -prefix to some writable directory ...). Before starting, ask explicitly your boss for permission (if you violate your company policies, you can be fired at once), and ask for guidance from someone knowing your operating system better than you do. You might need to change your PATH too.
Alternatively, ask permission to install and use a Linux distribution.
PS. Be sure to get permission to do something (even if technically you can do it alone).
You can download this ZIP file with Qt. All you have to do is unzip the ZIP file (which will take time) and place the files it contains in the right folder, nothing that requires administrator privileges. I recommend you put the contents of the ZIP file in C:\Qt, otherwise it might not work correctly (if this folder doesn't already exist, you can create it without administrator privileges and if it does exist, Qt is probably already installed on your computer in which case you don't need to do anything). I've also posted Qt's license agreement as it is in the installer program here since Qt wants you to read it before you use Qt.
Furthermore, I recommend using Qt Creator to make your Qt projects instead of Code::Blocks, because it's difficult to get Qt5 to work with Code::Blocks and Qt5 is the version of Qt used on both this website and Qt's installer (see this question) (if you find a way to get Qt5 to work with Code::Blocks, all the better, maybe you could even answer the question for which I posted a link). Qt Creator is included in the ZIP files on my website and to use Qt with Qt creator, all you have to do is include the right header files, no linking is needed. The path of Qt Creator is in the table on the bottom of the website.
You can download an archived distribution of MSYS2. After you extract and run it, you can use its packet manager to download numerous packages, including Qt. The only downside is you will have to settle for the version it provides, which is a little old, currently 5.5.1. You can install by typing:
pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-qt5 // for 32bit build or
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-qt5 // for 64bit
This will install Qt and all dependencies automatically. Make sure your antivirus is not running in the final stage, because it can mess with the binary patcher that patches Qt to run from its current installation folder (because advanced software like Qt apparently cannot work without hard-coded paths).
You can even get a static build of Qt, which is quite useful, just add a -static to the package name.
Just in case you were wondering - MSYS2 is a build environment, it can come quite in handy, for getting ready to use libraries, or for building libraries which require a build environment. You can build Qt without it, however, it is a very slow process that may fail, and even though it is not complex to do, I would not recommend it as a first option.
If you still decide to build it from source, there is a detailed guide which will get you through the process.
I developed a Qt application in MacBook (El-Capitan 10.11.2) and it is ready now to be released.
What i want now, is to create the standalone executable file for both Mac and Windows OS.
But I don't know how !
I found this link but I am unable to follow it is guidance, it looks different from what my system is showing me.
If you have any idea, please help me.
Thank you
Well, to compile an application for windows, you will need a windows machine (or at least a virtual machine). You can't compile for windows on mac.
Regarding the "standalone": The easy way is to deploy your application together with all the required dlls/frameworks and ship them as one "package". To to this, there are the tools windeployqt and macdeployqt. However, those will not be "single file" applications, but rather a collection of files.
If you want to have one single file, you will have to build Qt statically! You can to this, but you will have to do it on your own. And if you do, please notice that the LGPL-license (the one for the free version of Qt) requires you to make the source-code of your program public! That's not the case if you just link to the dynamic libraries.
EDIT:
Deployment
Deployment can be really hard, because you have to do it differently for each platform. Most times you will have 3 steps
Dependency resolving: In this step, you collect all the exectuables/lirabries/translations/... your application requires and collect them somewhere they can find each other. For windows and mac, this can be done using the tools I mentioned above.
Installation: Here you will have to create some kind of "installer". The easiest way is to create a zip-file that contains everyhing you need. But if you want to have a "nice" installation, you will have to create proper "installers" for each platform. (One of many possibilities is the Qt Installer Framework. Best thing about it: It's cross platform.)
Distribution: Distribution is how to get your program to the user. On Mac, you will have the App-Store, for windows you don't. Best way is to provide the download on a website created for this (like sourceforge, github, ...)
I can help you with the first step, but for the second step you will have to research the possibilities and decide for a way to do it.
Dependencies
Resolving the dependencies can be done by either building Qt statically (this way you will have only one single file, but gain additional work because you will have to compile Qt) or using the dynamic build. For the dynamic build, Qt will help you to resolve the dependencies:
macdeployqt is rather easy to use. Compile your app in release mode and call <qt_install_dir>/bin/macdeployqt <path_to_your_bundle>/<bundle>.app. After thats done, all Qt libraries are stored inside the <bundle>.app folder.
For windeployqt is basically the same: <qt_install_dir>\bin\windeployqt --release <path_to_your_build>\<application>.exe. All dependencies will be inside the build folder. (Hint: copy the <application>.exe in an empty directoy and run windeployqt on that path instead. This way you get rid of all the build-files).
Regarding the static build: Just google it, you will find hundreds of explanations for any platform. But unless you have no other choice but to use one single file (for whatever reason) it would recommend you to use dynamic builds. And regarding the user experience: On mac, they won't notice a difference, since in both cases everything will be hidden inside the app bundle. On windows, it's normal to have multiple files, so no one will bother. (And if you create an installer for windows, just make sure to add a desktop shortcut. This way the user will to have "a single file" to click.)
I've completed a simple numbers-version of the game "Towers of Hanoi" using xcode's command line tool in C++. Being accustomed to PC compilers like borland's and visual-c, I've attempted to "share" the game with others via e-mail by simply attaching the executable product built by xcode. However, the recipients can't run the program as it shows up in a different format - usually machine code, it sounds like.
After a bit of extensive searching, I'm realizing the complexity of building projects within xcode's IDE and the variations on the build settings/ targets, etc.
Anyone know how to build a self-contained c++ executable to be universally run? I don't go outside the STL library for this game. I'd greatly appreciate any help.
thanks
OS X is based on Unix, which uses plain binary files (i.e. no filename extension) as executables. If they have a certain "executable permission," they can be double-clicked to be run as executables, or run from the command line. However, this permission can't be sent over email - it's metadata within the file system itself, and this makes sense from a security standpoint (you wouldn't want spammers sending you executable viruses over email right?). So when the recipient receives the binary, they'll need to run the following command line command on it, assuming "hanoi" is the name of the binary file:
chmod +x /path/to/hanoi
If you really want to package it as an instantly double-clickable application, you'll need to give it a native UI and package it as a .app, then put that .app (which is actually a folder with the .app extension) in an archive to distribute. Sorry if that's more work than you were hoping for. Hope this helps!
Sharing applications across dot releases of the same OS can be notoriously difficult on the Mac (at least, as far as personal experience goes).
In order to be able to share your application with the least amount of effort, you will need to figure out:
What project type is this? Are you using any resources like images etc?
What version of the OS your friends are using? If they are not on the Mac, you're out of luck (or you'll have to recompile for their OS-es).
If they run Mac, check out that you have the same OS versions, if you have developed on Leopard and someone's running on SnowLeopard your application might simply fail. (I also ran into issues between Mac OS 10.5.4 and 10.5.3 so keep your fingers crossed.)
Check out what sort of hardware you are running. Are you building for your hardware (say, MacIntel) only or are you creating an Universal Binary?
Make sure that all resources are packaged into your application bundle. Make sure your application uses only relative paths.
Check if you are not writing to special folders (i.e. use only temp and/or word-writable locations, if you need to).
I wish I could give a more detailed/to the point reply but unfortunately you'll have to figure out some of the answers yourself (without any other specific information about the error you are getting).
If you're satisfied with a command line tool rather than a double-clickable app, it should suffice to zip it and attach that to the e-mail. Be sure to build universal if anyone you're sending to might be using a PowerPC-based Mac. Oh, and set the deployment target to the minimum OS that any recipient might be using.
I have a basic C++ applicatin build using g++ and -framework ...
when I run it, I get a :
Working in unbundled mode. You should build a .app wrapper for your Mac OS X applications.
(which is not std::couted by any of my application).
What causes this, and how can I get rid of it?
Thanks!
You need to create a folder structure and place the binary in a special location. For an example with explanation see this Qt page
Mac OS X handles most applications as "bundles". A bundle is a directory structure that groups related files together. Bundles are used for GUI applications, frameworks, and installer packages. These are presented to the user as one file in the Finder. When set up correctly, bundles make for easy deployment. All one needs to do is to archive the application using some preferred method. Users then open the archive and drag the application to wherever they please and are ready to go.
There is something written about this for wxWidgets too
MacOSX introduces a new way of putting together an application. Instead of adding a resource fork to the executable file, you can simply create a special directory (folder). This is the preferred method for OSX.