Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:23:40 -0400
From: Matt L <prometheus.uw@gmail.com>
To: "Ryan C. Gordon" <icculus@clutteredmind.org>
Subject: SDL Patch
Hio,
I saw your last call on the mailing list. Here's a patch which I
submitted about two weeks ago which hasn't made it in.
In the current sdl.m4, there's a bug where if your configure.ac, you
have AC_LANG(C++) specified, it won't properly compile and link the SDL
test program when you run the configure script. This is because only the
default CFLAGS is overriden in sdl.m4, and in the patch below, I've
fixed it so it overrides CXXFLAGS as well, allowing it to work with g++.
1 ==============================================================================
2 Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with Mac OS X
3 ==============================================================================
5 These instructions are for people using Apple's Mac OS X (pronounced
8 From the developer's point of view, OS X is a sort of hybrid Mac and
9 Unix system, and you have the option of using either traditional
10 command line tools or Apple's IDE Xcode.
12 To build SDL using the command line, use the standard configure and make
19 (You may need to create the subdirs of /usr/local manually.)
21 To use the library once it's built, you essential have two possibilities:
22 use the traditional autoconf/automake/make method, or use Project Builder.
24 ==============================================================================
25 Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with a traditional Makefile
26 ==============================================================================
28 An existing autoconf/automake build system for your SDL app has good chances
29 to work almost unchanged on OS X. However, to produce a "real" MacOS X binary
30 that you can distribute to users, you need to put the generated binary into a
31 so called "bundle", which basically is a fancy folder with a name like
34 To get this build automatically, add something like the following rule to
37 bundle_contents = APP_NAME.app/Contents
38 APP_NAME_bundle: EXE_NAME
39 mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/MacOS
40 mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/Resources
41 echo "APPL????" > $(bundle_contents)/PkgInfo
42 $(INSTALL_PROGRAM) $< $(bundle_contents)/MacOS/
44 You should replace EXE_NAME with the name of the executable. APP_NAME is what
45 will be visible to the user in the Finder. Usually it will be the same
46 as EXE_NAME but capitalized. E.g. if EXE_NAME is "testgame" then APP_NAME
47 usually is "TestGame". You might also want to use @PACKAGE@ to use the package
48 name as specified in your configure.in file.
50 If your project builds more than one application, you will have to do a bit
51 more. For each of your target applications, you need a seperate rule.
53 If you want the created bundles to be installed, you may want to add this
54 rule to your Makefile.am:
56 install-exec-hook: APP_NAME_bundle
57 rm -rf $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/APP_NAME.app
58 mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/
59 cp -r $< /$(DESTDIR)$(prefix)Applications/
61 This rule takes the Bundle created by the rule from step 3 and installs them
62 into $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/Applications/.
64 Again, if you want to install multiple applications, you will have to augment
65 the make rule accordingly.
68 But beware! That is only part of the story! With the above, you end up with
69 a bare bone .app bundle, which is double clickable from the Finder. But
70 there are some more things you should do before shipping yor product...
72 1) The bundle right now probably is dynamically linked against SDL. That
73 means that when you copy it to another computer, *it will not run*,
74 unless you also install SDL on that other computer. A good solution
75 for this dilemma is to static link against SDL. On OS X, you can
76 achieve that by linkinag against the libraries listed by
77 sdl-config --static-libs
78 instead of those listed by
80 Depending on how exactly SDL is integrated into your build systems, the
81 way to achieve that varies, so I won't describe it here in detail
82 2) Add an 'Info.plist' to your application. That is a special XML file which
83 contains some meta-information about your application (like some copyright
84 information, the version of your app, the name of an optional icon file,
85 and other things). Part of that information is displayed by the Finder
86 when you click on the .app, or if you look at the "Get Info" window.
87 More information about Info.plist files can be found on Apple's homepage.
90 As a final remark, let me add that I use some of the techniques (and some
91 variations of them) in Exult and ScummVM; both are available in source on
92 the net, so feel free to take a peek at them for inspiration!
95 ==============================================================================
96 Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with Xcode
97 ==============================================================================
99 These instructions are for using Apple's Xcode IDE to build SDL applications.
103 The first thing to do is to unpack the Xcode.tar.gz archive in the
104 top level SDL directory (where the Xcode.tar.gz archive resides).
105 Because Stuffit Expander will unpack the archive into a subdirectory,
106 you should unpack the archive manually from the command line:
107 cd [path_to_SDL_source]
109 This will create a new folder called Xcode, which you can browse
110 normally from the Finder.
112 - Building the Framework
114 The SDL Library is packaged as a framework bundle, an organized
115 relocatable folder heirarchy of executible code, interface headers,
116 and additional resources. For practical purposes, you can think of a
117 framework as a more user and system-friendly shared library, whose library
118 file behaves more or less like a standard UNIX shared library.
120 To build the framework, simply open the framework project and build it.
121 By default, the framework bundle "SDL.framework" is installed in
122 /Library/Frameworks. Therefore, the testers and project stationary expect
123 it to be located there. However, it will function the same in any of the
127 /Local/Library/Frameworks
128 /System/Library/Frameworks
131 There are two "Build Styles" (See the "Targets" tab) for SDL.
132 "Deployment" should be used if you aren't tweaking the SDL library.
133 "Development" should be used to debug SDL apps or the library itself.
135 - Building the Testers
136 Open the SDLTest project and build away!
138 - Using the Project Stationary
139 Copy the stationary to the indicated folders to access it from
140 the "New Project" and "Add target" menus. What could be easier?
142 - Setting up a new project by hand
143 Some of you won't want to use the Stationary so I'll give some tips:
144 * Create a new "Cocoa Application"
145 * Add src/main/macosx/SDLMain.m , .h and .nib to your project
146 * Remove "main.c" from your project
147 * Remove "MainMenu.nib" from your project
148 * Add "$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks/SDL.framework/Headers" to include path
149 * Add "$(HOME)/Library/Frameworks" to the frameworks search path
150 * Add "-framework SDL -framework Foundation -framework AppKit" to "OTHER_LDFLAGS"
151 * Set the "Main Nib File" under "Application Settings" to "SDLMain.nib"
155 - Building from command line
156 Use pbxbuild in the same directory as your .pbproj file
159 You can send command line args to your app by either invoking it from
160 the command line (in *.app/Contents/MacOS) or by entering them in the
161 "Executibles" panel of the target settings.
163 - Implementation Notes
164 Some things that may be of interest about how it all works...
166 As defined in the SDL_main.m file, the working directory of your SDL app
167 is by default set to its parent. You may wish to change this to better
169 * You have a Cocoa App!
170 Your SDL app is essentially a Cocoa application. When your app
171 starts up and the libraries finish loading, a Cocoa procedure is called,
172 which sets up the working directory and calls your main() method.
173 You are free to modify your Cocoa app with generally no consequence
174 to SDL. You cannot, however, easily change the SDL window itself.
175 Functionality may be added in the future to help this.
178 Known bugs are listed in the file "BUGS"