Chapter 4. Compiling Source Code
The Mac OS X Developer Tools are available from Apple and provide a development environment that will be familiar to any Unix developer whoworks with command-line compilers. For details about obtaining these tools, see the “Developer Tools” section in the Preface. The Developer Tools include all sorts of other goodies, including an advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE), but coverage of those tools is beyond the scope and intent of this book. To learn more about the Developer Tools, you can see /Developer/Documentation/DeveloperTools/devtools.html. You can also learn how to use Project Builder and Interface Builder and how to program Cocoa applications with Objective-C in Learning Cocoa with Objective-C (O’Reilly) and Building Cocoa Applications: A Step-by-Step Guide (O’Reilly).
The C compiler that comes with the Developer Tools is based on the Free Software Foundation’s GNU Compiler Collection, or GCC. Apple’s modifications to GCC include the addition of Objective-C to the compiler suite, as well as various modifications to deal with the Darwin operating system. The development environment in Mac OS X includes:
- AppleScript
This is an English-like language used to script applications and the operating system. AppleScript is installed as part of the Mac OS X operating system and does not require the Developer Tools package.
- AppleScript Studio
This is a high-level development environment based on AppleScript that allows you to build GUI ...