Building Plugins for the Mac : OS Compatibility

Sparrowhawke3DSparrowhawke3D Posts: 102

I’d appreciate some advice from anyone more experienced with Xcode regarding Mac and OS X compatibility issues.

I have a Mac mini with OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” and can now build and test my plugins for Carrara 8 and 8.5 and they work. I had to make a few changes to the template Proj.xcodeproj before I could get anywhere. I’m not sure if I have got all the settings right yet so I have a few questions.

Xcode 4.6.3 is the earliest version that I am allowed to install on Mavericks. The earliest version of the Base or SDKROOT that I can set is to build for OS X 10.7. The Target OS can be 10.4. So will the plugins work with earlier OS versions or will the minimum spec for the user be OS X 10.7 ?

( Those Project - Build Settings were :
Architectures > SDKROOT = OS X 10.7
Deployment > MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = OS X 10.4 )

What are the correct build settings to use for 64 and 32-bit Mac compatibility ? For Carrara 64-bit I build for x86_64. I can change the build scheme configuration to use i386 for "My Mac 32-bit” and this works with the Carrara 8 32-bit versions on my system.

My other question is less important. The built files are copied into the /Extensions/ folder okay but are named "DAZCarrara8.5MyPlugin.mcx” etc. I think I can see in the Targets - Myextension - Build Phrases - CopyToCarrara where it is doing that and using the folder structure it finds above the plugin source code. Can that be changed to remove the prefixed DAZ Carrara text in the name ? Sure, it’s easy enough to rename the files but it would save time no to have to. The file Info window won't let me change the name unless I start with that caret in front of MyPlugin and hit backspace !

Comments

  • dtammdtamm Posts: 126
    edited December 1969

    I’d appreciate some advice from anyone more experienced with Xcode regarding Mac and OS X compatibility issues.

    I have a Mac mini with OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” and can now build and test my plugins for Carrara 8 and 8.5 and they work. I had to make a few changes to the template Proj.xcodeproj before I could get anywhere. I’m not sure if I have got all the settings right yet so I have a few questions.

    Xcode 4.6.3 is the earliest version that I am allowed to install on Mavericks. The earliest version of the Base or SDKROOT that I can set is to build for OS X 10.7. The Target OS can be 10.4. So will the plugins work with earlier OS versions or will the minimum spec for the user be OS X 10.7 ?

    ( Those Project - Build Settings were :
    Architectures > SDKROOT = OS X 10.7
    Deployment > MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = OS X 10.4 )

    What are the correct build settings to use for 64 and 32-bit Mac compatibility ? For Carrara 64-bit I build for x86_64. I can change the build scheme configuration to use i386 for "My Mac 32-bit” and this works with the Carrara 8 32-bit versions on my system.

    My other question is less important. The built files are copied into the /Extensions/ folder okay but are named "DAZCarrara8.5MyPlugin.mcx” etc. I think I can see in the Targets - Myextension - Build Phrases - CopyToCarrara where it is doing that and using the folder structure it finds above the plugin source code. Can that be changed to remove the prefixed DAZ Carrara text in the name ? Sure, it’s easy enough to rename the files but it would save time no to have to. The file Info window won't let me change the name unless I start with that caret in front of MyPlugin and hit backspace !

    If you look closely at the XCode3 installer, looking at the contents of the dmg using the terminal, you can install just the 10.5 SDK. But that being said, you can also install XCode3 on 10.9

    --------------------------------------------------
    WARNING, it can render your machine unusable. Although it is fixable by booting into safe mode.
    explanation of safe mode -> http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

    You can install XCode 3 with a few tricks. The problem is that XCode 3 installs some 32 bit kernel extension into your 64 bit environment. Instant crash and continual crash on boot.

    Steps:
    1) Obtain Xcode3 from the developers site. It's there.
    2) When installing XCode3, uncheck "System Tools"
    3) Right after completion(don't wait), do:
    sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleProfileFamily.kext
    sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/CHUD*.kext


    This guy also has different steps.
    -> http://hamstergene.github.io/blog/2012-11-13-xcode3-mountain-lion/

  • Sparrowhawke3DSparrowhawke3D Posts: 102
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the advice dtamm,

    Installing Xcode 3 in Mavericks is certainly risky. I'd taken Eric's advice from his earlier posts to avoid doing that. I think it depends exactly which version of Xcode 3 is installed as to how much damage can be done and how to safely install it...I'm willing to risk an OS re-install at this point.

    I tried your method with Xcode 3.2. No problems with the Mavericks OS using that method but Xcode crashed when I tried to open the application or a project file making it unusable. Perhaps I need to try a different point build ?

    I also tested Xcode 3.0 and it had already installed by the time I realised that no option to skip System Tools had come up ! The Mac crashed when the install finished but it has been okay after a restart. So far I've been able to build a plugin .mcx successfully with the 10.4u SDK and it works in Carrara 8. The resource extraction of the .rsrc and Copy to Carrara for the .txt and .dat files didn't work but I could copy them from the other builds with Xcode 4 to test it.

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