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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

command line tools or Apple's IDE ProjectBuilder (PB).

To build using the command line, use the standard configure and make

process:

./configure

make

make install

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

To use the library once it's built, you essential have two possibilities:

use the traditional autoconf/automake/make method, or use Apple's Project Builder.

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Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with a traditional Makefile

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In the following, it will be mostly assumed that you are using autoconf and

automake to setup your SDL project, and furthermore that you use the AM_PATH_SDL

macro provided by SDL in sdl.m4. If you are not using these tools, you can

still use SDL but it will be somewhat hard to get running.

Only step 1) is really required to get started, but for full OS X support you

will want to do the other steps, too.

1) Update your acinclude.m4 file in case you have copied an older version of

sdl.m4 into it. This is essential as AM_PATH_SDL now performs some additional

tasks when used on MacOS X

Rationale: AM_PATH_SDL copies /usr/local/share/sdl/Info.plist and the folder

/usr/local/share/sdl/SDL_main.nib/ into the directory where configure is invoked.

This is essential for the configure script to be able to run the test code

that detects SDL.

2) Copy SDL's Info.plist.in file (from src/main/macosx) into your project's main

folder (the same spot that your configure.in sits), and edit it to suite your

needs. Then add it to your AC_OUTPUT list in configure.in

Rationale: The Info.plist file can be used to specify an icon file for

your app, and also to provide a human readable version/copyright string

and other meta-information to the user via the Finder's Get Info dialog.

3) 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

mkdir -p $(bundle_contents)/Resources/SDL_main.nib

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

$(INSTALL_DATA) Info.plist $(bundle_contents)/

$(INSTALL_DATA) SDL_main.nib/*.nib $(bundle_contents)/Resources/SDLMain.nib

$(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. Furthermore, each

needs its own Info.plist file, since that has to contain the exact name of the

executable (i.e. EXE_NAME above). One way to do that is to use sed in your make rules

and modify a single master Info.plist.

Rationale: on Mac OS X, executables have to be put into so-called "bundles".

The make rule given above will construct such a bundle around the executable

for you. You need to make a copy of it for each target application.

4) If you want the create 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.

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Using the Simple DirectMedia Layer with Project Builder

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These instructions are for using Apple's Project Builder IDE to build SDL applications.

- First steps

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

top level SDL directory (where the PBProjects.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 PBProjects.tar.gz

This will create a new folder called PBProjects, 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

~/Library/Frameworks. Therefore, the testers and project stationary expect

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"

* Add src/main/macosx/SDL_main.m , .h and .nib to your project

* 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" to the "OTHER_LDFLAGS" variable

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

As defined in the SDL_main.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.

* 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.

* My development setup:

I am using version 1.0.1 (v63.0) of Project Builder on MacOS X 10.0.3,

from the Developer Tools CD for May 2001.

As of May 31 2001, Apple hasn't released this version of the tools to the public,

but I expect that things will still work on older versions.

Known bugs are listed in the file "BUGS"

LocalWords: Stuffit