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Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with Mac OS X

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These instructions are for people using Apple's Mac OS X (pronounced

"ten").

From the developer's point of view, OS X is a sort of hybrid Mac and

Unix system, and you have the option of using either traditional

process:

./configure

make

(You may need to create the subdirs of /usr/local manually.)

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Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with a traditional Makefile

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An existing autoconf/automake build system for your SDL app has good chances

to work almost unchanged on OS X. However, to produce a "real" MacOS X binary

that you can distribute to users, you need to put the generated binary into a

so called "bundle", which basically is a fancy folder with a name like

"MyCoolGame.app".

To get this build automatically, add something like the following rule to

your Makefile.am:

bundle_contents = APP_NAME.app/Contents

APP_NAME_bundle: EXE_NAME

mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/MacOS

mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/Resources

echo "APPL????" > $(bundle_contents)/PkgInfo

$(INSTALL_PROGRAM) $< $(bundle_contents)/MacOS/

You should replace EXE_NAME with the name of the executable. APP_NAME is what

will be visible to the user in the Finder. Usually it will be the same

as EXE_NAME but capitalized. E.g. if EXE_NAME is "testgame" then APP_NAME

usually is "TestGame". You might also want to use @PACKAGE@ to use the package

name as specified in your configure.in file.

If your project builds more than one application, you will have to do a bit

more. For each of your target applications, you need a seperate rule.

If you want the created bundles to be installed, you may want to add this

rule to your Makefile.am:

install-exec-hook: APP_NAME_bundle

rm -rf $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/APP_NAME.app

mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/

cp -r $< /$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)Applications/

This rule takes the Bundle created by the rule from step 3 and installs them

into $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/.

Again, if you want to install multiple applications, you will have to augment

the make rule accordingly.

But beware! That is only part of the story! With the above, you end up with

a bare bone .app bundle, which is double clickable from the Finder. But

there are some more things you should do before shipping yor product...

1) The bundle right now probably is dynamically linked against SDL. That

means that when you copy it to another computer, *it will not run*,

unless you also install SDL on that other computer. A good solution

for this dilemma is to static link against SDL. On OS X, you can

achieve that by linkinag against the libraries listed by

sdl-config --static-libs

instead of those listed by

sdl-config --libs

Depending on how exactly SDL is integrated into your build systems, the

way to achieve that varies, so I won't describe it here in detail

2) Add an 'Info.plist' to your application. That is a special XML file which

contains some meta-information about your application (like some copyright

information, the version of your app, the name of an optional icon file,

and other things). Part of that information is displayed by the Finder

when you click on the .app, or if you look at the "Get Info" window.

More information about Info.plist files can be found on Apple's homepage.

As a final remark, let me add that I use some of the techniques (and some

variations of them) in Exult and ScummVM; both are available in source on

the net, so feel free to take a peek at them for inspiration!

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- First steps

The first thing to do is to unpack the Xcode.tar.gz archive in the

top level SDL directory (where the Xcode.tar.gz archive resides).

Because Stuffit Expander will unpack the archive into a subdirectory,

you should unpack the archive manually from the command line:

cd [path_to_SDL_source]

tar zxf Xcode.tar.gz

This will create a new folder called Xcode, which you can browse

normally from the Finder.

- Building the Framework

The SDL Library is packaged as a framework bundle, an organized

relocatable folder heirarchy of executible code, interface headers,

and additional resources. For practical purposes, you can think of a

framework as a more user and system-friendly shared library, whose library

file behaves more or less like a standard UNIX shared library.

To build the framework, simply open the framework project and build it.

By default, the framework bundle "SDL.framework" is installed in

it to be located there. However, it will function the same in any of the

following locations:

~/Library/Frameworks

/Local/Library/Frameworks

/System/Library/Frameworks

- Build Options

There are two "Build Styles" (See the "Targets" tab) for SDL.

"Deployment" should be used if you aren't tweaking the SDL library.

"Development" should be used to debug SDL apps or the library itself.

- Building the Testers

Open the SDLTest project and build away!

- Using the Project Stationary

Copy the stationary to the indicated folders to access it from

the "New Project" and "Add target" menus. What could be easier?

- Setting up a new project by hand

Some of you won't want to use the Stationary so I'll give some tips:

* Create a new "Cocoa Application"

* Remove "main.c" from your project

* Remove "MainMenu.nib" from your project

* Add "$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks/SDL.framework/Headers" to include path

* Add "$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks" to the frameworks search path

* Add "-framework SDL -framework Foundation -framework AppKit" to "OTHER_LDFLAGS"

* Set the "Main Nib File" under "Application Settings" to "SDLMain.nib"

* Add your files

* Clean and build

- Building from command line

Use pbxbuild in the same directory as your .pbproj file

- 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

"Executibles" panel of the target settings.

- Implementation Notes

Some things that may be of interest about how it all works...

* Working directory

is by default set to its parent. You may wish to change this to better

suit your needs.

* You have a Cocoa App!

Your SDL app is essentially a Cocoa application. When your app

starts up and the libraries finish loading, a Cocoa procedure is called,

which sets up the working directory and calls your main() method.

You are free to modify your Cocoa app with generally no consequence

to SDL. You cannot, however, easily change the SDL window itself.

Functionality may be added in the future to help this.