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Level 4

2,291 points

Building Makefile Projects With Xcode

I'm trying to learn how to build a makefile project in Xcode, using the built-in documentation. (See Porting UNIX/Linux Applications to Mac OS X > Preparing to Port > Building Makefile Projects With Xcode) I get up to step six, which says, "Select 'GNU Make Target' from the list. If this is not shown in the 'Special Targets' list, you are not running the latest version of Xcode. Upgrade first."

Well, I am running Xcode 2.5, technically not the latest version, but it's the latest version I can run in Tiger. Besides, this documentation came with the version of Xcode that I'm using, so why would it be telling me to upgrade?

Somehow I suspect that the version of Xcode is not the problem, but the documentation becomes useless at this point. Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 17, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 4 GB RAM, 160 GB HD

Posted on Mar 20, 2008 3:04 PM

19 replies

etresoft

Level 8

46,390 points

Mar 22, 2008 10:52 AM in response to David Livesay

David Livesay wrote:
Not only is the built-in documentation in Xcode undated

It is dated. You just aren't looking in the right place. The main Xcode documentation page lists all the documentation sorted by date. Furthermore, each page in the documentation, such as the one on targets, ends with a "Last Updated" date.

I mean, it's like they have gone out of their way and bent over backwards to mislead people! This isn't just sloppy. It's deceptive.

No. You're wrong. It is just an oversight. Documentation is a pain to update in the best of times and there has been an awful lot going on with MacOS X and Xcode since 2006.

Why on earth would Apple software engineers want to "deceive" you? Come on! That is patently ridiculous. It is a mistake and oversight, sure. But it is a mistake that every single software engineer has done at some point on every single project - myself included. Eventually we get caught up. If we have bug fixes and new capabilities ready, why withhold them from users until you get all the outdated documentation purged. Release the new code, especially the new code that is required for new operating systems and/or new hardware, and clean up the old documentation when you get around to it.

I wonder how many would-be Windows developer converts have simply given up and gone back to Windows because the documentation for Xcode is so pathetic.

Lots of them, hopefully.

Mar 22, 2008 11:13 AM in response to David Livesay

David Livesay wrote:
Thanks for all your help, Charlie.

You're welcome.

The next thing I need to do is figure out how to run configure so that it adds the contributed modules I'm interested in and builds a universal binary. It looks like I have a lot of reading to do there.

If I ever get to upgrade to Leopard I'll add supporting multiple OS versions to the list. Fun!

Hmm. It's a little old now, but Tech Note 2137 might be helpful for Universal builds, and perhaps multiple OS versions, too.

Also, Marc Liyanage has forums at his site where there's discussion of building postgresql as a Universal Binary.

charlie

David Livesay Author

Level 4

2,291 points

Mar 22, 2008 4:06 PM in response to Charles Minow

I actually started with Marc's blog, but I realized I didn't understand what he was talking about, so I thought I'd better go back to square one and start over. I've built and installed a few command-line tools and things like that, but I've never done anything like Marc's been doing, and I thought it might be a good thing to know how to do it.

David Livesay Author

Level 4

2,291 points

Mar 22, 2008 4:23 PM in response to etresoft

etresoft wrote:

No. You're wrong. It is just an oversight. Documentation is a pain to update in the best of times and there has been an awful lot going on with MacOS X and Xcode since 2006.

And this explains why it would say something like, "Note: These instructions apply to the latest version of Xcode"??? Why would they make a statement like that knowing that documentation is such a pain to update? Why didn't they say *which version* of Xcode they were talking about instead of saying "the latest version"??? I mean, that statement was probably only correct for a few months at best. It's been wrong now for more than a year.

etresoft wrote:

Lots of them, hopefully.

That would explain why I'm still waiting for so many companies to update their drivers so I can install Leopard. With any luck I might get to install 10.5 sometime before they release 10.6.

Building Makefile Projects With Xcode