SDL Mac OS X Developer Notes:

This is an optional developer package to provide extras that an

SDL developer might benefit from.

Make sure you have already installed the SDL.framework

from the SDL.dmg.

For more complete documentation, please see READMEs included

with the SDL source code. Also, don't forget about the API

documentation (also included with this package).

This package contains:

- SDL API Documentation

- A variety of SDLMain and .Nib files to choose from

- Xcode/Project Builder project templates

SDL API Documentation:

We include both the HTML documentation and the man files. For

the HTML documentation, we have previously been installing to

/Develoepr/Documentation, but Apple explicitly says this is not

intended for 3rd party documentation. Xcode installs/updates

reserve the right and have been known to completely purge the

/Developer directory before installation, so if you place stuff

there, be aware that it could be deleted.

(Xcode 3.0 introduces support for 3rd-party documentation, but

we are still investigating the details.)

SDLMain:

We include several different variations of SDLMain and the

.Nibs. (Each of these are demonstrated by the different PB/Xcode

project templates.) You get to pick which one you want to use,

or you can write your own to meet your own specific needs. We do

not currently provide a libSDLMain.a. You can build it yourself

once you decide which one you want to use though it is easier and

recommended in the SDL FAQ that you just copy the SDLMain.h and

SDLMain.m directly into your project. If you are puzzled by this,

we strongly recommend you look at the different PB/Xcode project

templates to understand their uses and differences. (See Project

Template info below.) Note that the "Nibless" version is the same

version of SDLMain we include the the devel-lite section of the

main SDL.dmg.

Xocde Project Templates:

For convenience, we provide Project Templates for Xcode.

Using Xcode is *not* a requirement for using

the SDL.framework. However, for newbies, we do recommend trying

out the Xcode templates first (and work your way back to raw gcc

if you desire), as the Xcode templates try to setup everything

for you in a working state. This avoids the need to ask those

many reoccuring questions that appear on the mailing list

or the SDL FAQ.

We have provided 3 different kinds of SDL templates for Xcode and have

a different set of templates for each version of Xcode (which generally

correspond with a particular Mac OS X version).

The installion directory depends on which version of Xcode you have.

(Note: These directories may not already exist on your system so you must create them yourself.)

For Leopard and Snow Leopard (Xcode 2.5, 3+), we recommend you install to:

/Library/Application Support/Developer/Shared/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

For Xcode 1.0 to 2.4,

/Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Project Templates/Appllcation

Also note you may place it in per-user locations, e.g.

~/Library/Application Support/Developer/Shared/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

And for advanced users who have multiple versions of Xcode installed on a single system,

you may put each set in a directory with the Xcode version number instead of using "Shared", e.g.

/Library/Application Support/Developer/2.5/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

/Library/Application Support/Developer/3.1/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

/Library/Application Support/Developer/3.2/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

Copy each of the SDL/Xcode template directories into the correct location (e.g. "SDL OpenGL Application").

Do not copy our enclosing folder into the location (e.g. TemplatesForXcodeSnowLeopard).

So for example, in:

/Library/Application Support/Developer/Shared/Xcode/Project Templates/Application

you should have the 3 folders:

SDL Application

SDL Cocoa Application

SDL OpenGL Application

After doing this, when doing a File->New Project, you will see the

projects under the Application category.

(Newer versions of Xcode have a separate section for User Templates and it will

appear in the Application category of the User Templates section.)

How to create a new SDL project:

1. Open Xcode (or Project Builder)

2. Select File->New Project

3. Select SDL Application

4. Name, Save, and Finish

5. Add your sources.

*6. That's it!

* If you installed the SDL.framework to $(HOME)/Library/Frameworks

instead of /Library/Frameworks, you will need to update the

location of the SDL.framework in the "Groups & Files" browser.

The project templates we provide are:

- SDL Application

This is the barebones, most basic version. There is no

customized .Nib file. While still utilizing Cocoa under

the hood, this version may be best suited for fullscreen

applications.

- SDL Cocoa Application

This demonstrates the integration of using native

Cocoa Menus with an SDL Application. For applications

designed to run in Windowed mode, Mac users may appreciate

having access to standard menus for things

like Preferences and Quiting (among other things).

- SDL OpenGL Application

This reuses the same SDLMain from the "SDL Application"

temmplate, but also demonstrates how to

bring OpenGL into the mix.

Special Notes:

Only the 10.6 Snow Leopard templates (and later) will include 64-bit in the Universal Binary as

prior versions of OS X lacked the API support SDL requires for 64-bit to work correctly.

To prevent 64-bit SDL executables from being launched on 10.5 Leopard, a special key has been set

in the Info.plist in our Snow Leopard SDL/Xcode templates.

Xcode Tips and Tricks:

- Building from command line

Use the command line tool: xcodebuild (see man page)

- Running your app

You can send command line args to your app by either

invoking it from the command line (in *.app/Contents/MacOS)

or by entering them in the "Executables" panel of the target

settings.

- Working directory

As defined in the SDLMain.m file, the working directory of

your SDL app is by default set to its parent. You may wish to

change this to better suit your needs.

Additional References:

- Screencast tutorials for getting started with OpenSceneGraph/Mac OS X are

available at:

http://www.openscenegraph.org/projects/osg/wiki/Support/Tutorials/MacOSXTips

Though these are OpenSceneGraph centric, the same exact concepts apply to

SDL, thus the videos are recommended for everybody getting started with

developing on Mac OS X. (You can skim over the PlugIns stuff since SDL

doesn't have any PlugIns to worry about.)

Partial History:

2009-09-21 - CustomView template project was removed because it was broken by

the removal of legacy Quicktime support while moving to 64-bit.

ProjectBuilder templates were removed.

Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard Xcode templates were introduced instead of

using a single common template due to the differences between the 3.

(Tiger used a chevron marker for substitution while Leopard/Snow Leopard use ___

and we need the 10.6 SDK for 64-bit.)

2007-12-30 - Updated documentation to reflect new template paths in Leopard

Xcode. Added reference to OSG screencasts.

2006-03-17 - Changed the package format from a .pkg based

installer to a .dmg to avoid requiring administrator/root

to access contents, for better transparency, and to allow

users to more easily control which components

they actually want to install.

Introduced and updated documentation.

Created brand new Xcode project templates for Xcode 2.1

based on the old Project Builder templates as they

required Xcode users to "Upgrade to Native Target". The new

templates try to leveage more default options and leverage

more Xcode conventions. The major change that may introduce

some breakage is that I now link to the SDL framework

via the "Group & Files" browser instead of using build

options. The downside to this is that if the user

installs the SDL.framework to a place other than

/Library/Frameworks (e.g. $(HOME)/Library/Frameworks),

the framework will not be found to link to and the user

has to manually fix this. But the upshot is (in addition to

being visually displayed in the forefront) is that it is

really easy to copy (embed) the framework automatically

into the .app bundle on build. So I have added this

feature, which makes the application potentially

drag-and-droppable ready. The Project Builder templates

are mostly unchanged due to the fact that I don't have

Project Builder. I did rename a file extension to .pbxproj

for the SDL Custom Cocoa Application template because

the .pbx extension would not load in my version of Xcode.

For both Project Builder and Xcode templates, I resync'd

the SDLMain.* files for the SDL App and OpenGL App

templates. I think people forget that we have 2 other

SDLMain's (and .Nib's) and somebody needs to go

through them and merge the new changes into those.

I also wrote a fix for the SDL Custom Cocoa App

template in MyController.m. The sprite loading code

needed to be able to find the icon.bmp in the .app

bundle's Resources folder. This change was needed to get

the app to run out of the box. This might change is untested

with Project Builder though and might break it.

There also seemed to be some corruption in the .nib itself.

Merely opening it and saving (allowing IB to correct the

.nib) seemed to correct things.

(Eric Wing)