10.5: Edit compiled NIBs with Interface Builder
We know compiled NIBs don't open in Interface Builder (part of Xcode). As almost all Apple programs use compiled NIBs, it's a real pain to try to tweak their interface elements with Xcode. But some non-Apple programs use regular non-compiled NIBs, so the trick it to copy the compiled keyedobjects.nib file into a regular .nib resource, and then open it with Interface Builder. Just navigate to the Content » Resources folder of the program you want to edit then, find, select and drag and drop the keyedobjects.nib you need to edit to some other non-compiled .nib. The original compiled keyedobjects.nib will then open and allow every usual interface tweaking. Of course, I had some concerns about this trick. But I used it to edit the Keynote 3 resources, and so far, I've haven't seen any problems -- and Keynote is as stable as before. A nice way t...
published on Wednesday, the 26. November 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Install tips for PHP's pecl_http on 64-bit Intel Macs
Here are some tips for getting the PHP pecl_http extension running on a Macintosh OS X 10.5.x Leopard 64-bit Intel machine. For starters, you need to follow the instructions in the PHP Documentation pages to install the PEAR/PECL manager, because it is no longer in the standard OS X setup: To compile the extension, you have to install the Developers (Xcode) from your system disks because they are not installed by default. This is a simple step. It's not made clear that you need to install an older version of pecl_http than the latest stable version (1.6.1 as of this writing), because 1.6.1 needs PHP6. I used version 1.5.6 successfully. So, your Terminal command has to be sudo pecl install pecl_http-1.5.6. There is apparently a libcurl dependency in the case of pecl_http (although no dependencies are listed at the extension site), but it came with the excellent ...
published on Friday, the 21. November 2008, macosxhints
Absoft debuts Fortran plug-in for Xcode 3.1
Absoft has announced a new plug-in for Apple's latest development platform, Xcode 3.1. The Absoft add-on lets users program in Fortran within Xcode, via support of the company's special IDE. Both 32- and 64-bit compilers are present, and users additionally have access to Absoft's Fx3 debugger, MRWE framework and third-party libraries. Resulting programs can be composed entirely of Fortran, or a...
published on Wednesday, the 22. October 2008, macintosh-news-network
Absoft's Pro Fortran 10.2 adds speed, debugging, more
Absoft has released Pro Fortran 10.2, featuring increased speed, better debugging and new Fortran tools. Absoft has incorporated Intel's SSE4.1 vector instructions, which can increase speeds as much as 10 percent. Pro Fortran v10.2 also uses Absoft's Fx3 debugger with Apple's Xcode 3.1, improving debugging in both 32-and 64-bit executables. Fortran's new IDE (Integrated Development Environment) in...
published on Wednesday, the 15. October 2008, macintosh-news-network
10.5: Use a built-in command line audio player
OS X 10.5 includes a command line audio player (in /usr/bin) called afplay. This is very useful if you want to play a sound file from the command line, shell script, Automator action, etc. The /usr/bin directory is in your path by default, so you can just type afplay file.mp3 to play that file.afplay makes use of Core Audio, so I think it can play any audio file that QuickTime supports (including mp3, aiff, wav, etc.). If any one is interested, Apple also provides the source code for this application with the Xcode developer tools. You'll find it in this folder: /Developer » Examples » CoreAudio » Services » AudioFileTools.[robg adds: There's a very simple man page for afplay, which then tells you that help is available with afplay -h. There are a few interesting options, including the ability to play a defi...
published on Friday, the 3. October 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Install ImageMagick without Fink or MacPorts
I needed ImageMagick -- especially as a Ruby GEM -- so I had to somehow get gem install rmagick working, as it didn't work out of the box: Leopard doesn't ship with ImageMagick.If you've ever tried to install ImageMagick without Fink or MacPorts, you'll have a quite good chance to go completely nuts. Especially the interdependencies of libjpeg and ghostscript are insane. I also wanted to keep the install as small as possible, and therefore I decided against installing the whole ghostscript package (but you may do so if you like).I created a set of commands that you can copy-and-paste into a shell script, which should install ImageMagick flawlessly on your Mac. Please notice that Mac OS X 10.5.4 (or higher), XCode 3.1 (or higher), and X11 is required. You'll find the shell command...
published on Monday, the 25. August 2008, macosxhints
iPhone SDK Tutorial: Build a Simple RSS reader for the iPhone
With this I’m assuming you have a bit of familiarity with the iPhone SDK - you can download it for free from Apple’s site, and follow along here. We’re going to build an RSS feed reader for a simple feed (from The Apple Blog, no less). Let’s get started Open Xcode and choose the “File” menu, in [...]
published on Monday, the 4. August 2008, apple-blog
First Look: TileStack beta programming tool
If you want to write a program for Mac OS X or the iPhone, youíll have to use Appleís Xcode tool. Since Xcode is designed for professional programmers to create complicated applications such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop, itís not easy for novice programmers to learn or master. If you just want the fun of learning to program without the ste...
published on Friday, the 1. August 2008, macintosh-news-network
10.5: Create any mobile phone plug-in for iSync
If you are slightly tech-savvy, Apple has introduced (on the Xcode Developer DVD that ships with Leopard) an application to help you create your own mobile phone plug-ins. If you have not already installed the Developer Tools, do so. If you have, go to /Developer » Applications » Utilities in the Finder. The application you are looking for is named iSync Plug-in Maker, which is essentially a graphical wizard that assists you in rapidly putting together and then testing your own plug-in for any mobile phone device. After testing, the program helps you create a distribution/installation package. A lot of people are using the tool and then making money selling their own plug-ins -- but now you know where to find the same tools, so you can do this on your own. Apple even has ...
published on Wednesday, the 30. July 2008, macosxhints
Absoft's Fx3, Xcode 3.1 accelerate Fortran debugging
Absoft has announced significant gains in debugging Fortran code on the Mac platform when combining its Fx3 debugger with Apple's recently released Xcode 3.1 update (which provides additional debugging capabilities to developers). The combination of the two tools allows developers to view and modify values of program variables, which can be located...
published on Thursday, the 24. July 2008, macintosh-news-network