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Sometimes it's nice to open an interpreter, type out some code and see if it's working, rather than having to compile something large like an Xcode project just to quickly test something. Does an Objective-C Interpreter exist for the Mac, or am I out of luck?
UPDATE: There's a paid program in the App Store called CodeRunner, which lets you run Obj-C quickly (and several other languages). It's not an interpreter, but works pretty well for testing out ideas quickly: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coderunner/id433335799?mt=12
You can use F-Script, which is Smalltalk-based, but lets you interface with Cocoa. You can also embed it in your application, to let you inspect views and other things at runtime. It's quite useful. Edit: as pointed out in the comments, there are other great language bridges available, like PyObjC, RubyCocoa/MacRuby, Nu, etc. CINT is an example of a C interpreter, but not Obj-C.
As for an actual Objective-C interpreter, I don't think one really exists. But it's not too hard to set up a "Command Line Tool" project in Xcode, which gives you a really simple main.m file to try something in.
For those arriving here late: Take a look at Tosti. A basic but pretty functional Objective-C interpreter.
It's a side-project I put on GitHub as there seems very little available at the moment. I'm using it to do some remote debugging. Support available.
RubyMotion allows you to use all of the Cocoa SDK's library (as far as I know there are 0 limitations due to the similarities between Ruby & Objective C), for example, at runtime. You can also of course use every Objective C library you can load into it as well. The only limitations are the same as all other IDE's, namely those set forth by Apple with regard to unapproved dynamic libraries.
Anyway, functions are syntactically very, very similar to Objective-C, in it surprised me that you can do this in such a way with ruby (normally you can't
#for example the in AppDelegate class
class AppDelegate
def application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions)
#...
true
end
end
when you run rake (equivalent to Build command in XCode), you of course do it from the console, and once your iPhone/iPad app is loaded to the simulator or your apple device, you then can control that device or simulator interactively via commands entered from the console.
Ruby Motion costs $200 bucks/year, so its not worth it just for the interactive shell feature though of course
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Is there anybody using Fortran on stackoverflow? What IDE do you use and which one do you think to be the best?
Seems lots of people surround me are quite inconvenient with Intel Visual Fortran. Because there is no support for intellisense, refactoring, etc.
What about these ones:
Photran - An Integrated Development Environment and Refactoring Tool for Fortran (this one is everything you need :D)
Oracle Solaris Studio Advanced C, C++ and Fortran development platform
Well, as others already mentioned you could use instead of an IDE a separate text editor. Several come to mind;
VIM (or one of the family) - great editing capabilities, very customizable. Unfortunatelly, it is still an editor
not an IDE. It can be customized in a variety of ways of course, but that gets boring after a while. Also, it's syntax highlighting capabilities are somewhat wrongly made. Also has some problems/confusions with free/fixed format and f77/f90/f95 ...
Emacs - pretty much same advantages/shortcomings as the above.
SlickEdit - has very nice fortran support; unfortunatelly, modifying it is a little annoying and the support forums are not much help.
In general, editors like the above mentioned can be used, but in that case it is best to choose one from the start and stick to it; modifying your work habits as you go; since customizing everything can be time consuming to suit your needs.
Most editors have problems with fortran's syntax, since they're used to C's (where everything that "opens" has a "close").
As far as IDE's goes, your options are not that great:
Silverfrost's compiler used to come with it's own IDE (Plato, if I do remember correctly; it's been a while) - don't know what happened to it, and whether it still is "alive"
Absoft has one of it's own as well (never used it so ...)
There was a specialized fortran editor I once encountered; ya...something; unfortunatelly I cannot remember it's name; maybe someone else will know
One of the best options (which I used to use myself, so I may be biased) is Visual Studio + Resharper, which will add a few editing features to VS's editor. Most of them can also be accomplished with macros.
This post could use some editing but it is written in a hurry, so ...
Geany is nice too. I use it for my small projects in Fortran. Works pretty good too.
http://www.geany.org/
I've never used it, but according to the documentation, the NetBeans C/C++ plugin also adds support for Fortran. I use NetBeans as my IDE for everything except .NET development and love it. If Fortran support is half as good as support for C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, and PHP, then it is worth looking at.
Many Fortran developers use text editors plus some build automation tool like CMake or SCons. Partially because of lack of well-featured IDE.
However there are some projects. I've tried Photran, Fortran IDE for Eclipse. It has limited support for autocomplete and refactoring.
Also take a look at Code::Blocks IDE for Fortran. I do not like Code::Blocks...
We use an in-house extension to visual studio to get code completion for our fortran code and to assist us with debugging. But even so there is a lot of room for improvement. Our main issues are:
instability of visual studio. An error in the debugged program can crash VS.
sometimes VS shows corrupted stacktraces (while WinDBG shows it correctly).
debugger wont show values of variables of type CHARACTER(LEN=:), ALLOCATABLE
Edit and Continue not supported
We used Sun workshop and it was very good, but there is no windows version.
jedit has a nice fortran mode and you can define keybindings for the compiler and debugger.
for small to medium sized projects it is quite nice. it also has svn and multiple files search. also very nice is hypersearch where you get a list of you matches and you can go to the position with a single click. another goodie is a plugin for gdb and for ctags. you can very easily script all functions using jython. it feels a little bit like a modern version of emacs that uses python instead of lisp. check out the plugin manager. it lets you download all the plugins from the server and installs them for you (like in eclipse).
http://www.jedit.org
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I am looking for recommendations for a tool that will let me construct a binary image out of a series of smaller images.
I have an embedded system with a flash ROM that I program using a single image. That image consists of a series of smaller objects (data, compiled code, etc) placed at specific offsets. The build system I inherited uses a disturbing amalgam of old 16-bit DOS utilities to hack the image together. I was hoping to find a modern tool that would do the job in a less arcane (and less bug-prone) manner.
The tool needs to be able to run from a config file. That is, I specify that file A.bin needs to be placed at offset 4KB, file B.bin needs to be placed at offset 16KB, etc etc in a configuration file so that the tool does not require repeated manual command-line invocations. This is mainly because we have another system that will be auto-generating these config files.
The tool also needs to be open source (or at a minimum, cross-platform). We have developers using Windows and automated build systems using Linux and the tool would need to work on both.
I have debated hacking together my own utility in C, but before I went through all the trouble developing and debugging I wanted to ask and see if someone knew of a tool that was already out there that I missed.
Edit: Cygwin-related tools are unfortunately not an option for us. One of our critical build tools will crash if it is run on a system with Cygwin installed (I think it uses a specific, older cygwin DLL but that's an entirely different fiasco unto itself).
I usually write my own, but via Jack Ganssle's Embedded Muse newsletter No. 184 I came across http://srecord.sourceforge.net/ which will do just about anything with almost any type of binary image file (despite its name it handles far more formats than just Motorola S-Records, including raw binaries). It may save you some time.
dd would be definitively your best friend.
Use cygwin for windows users.
The Elfweaver utility that is distributed with OKL4 may be appropriate for you. From the manual:
"Elfweaver is a tool that may be used to manipulate ELF files. Elfweaver is written as a Python 2.3 application that only uses cross-platform libraries. Therefore Elfweaver should run on Linux, Mac-OS X and Windows. The main functionality of Elfweaver is that it allows the user to merge multiple ELF files into a single ELF file"
http://wiki.ok-labs.com/downloads/release-3.0/okl4-ref-manual-3.0.pdf
If you think that looks suitable, you can get the tool along with the okl4 source code from the OKL4 website.
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I'm investigating the possiblity of creating PDF files from an embedded system, specifially an ARM9 using the IAR tools. Open-souce or licensing is fine - I'm finding it difficult to search for online, and I'm hoping someone here has used a package. C or C++ is preferred, we will be creating fairly simple reports with only a little text and graphics.
UPDATE: By searching SO, I did find PDFTron - anyone have any experience with it? Seems like it might do what we want.
!!!
(is this a webserver? Otherwise it seems like it would make more sense to spit out text files as reports and convert on a PC.)
No experience, but maybe libHaru ? Wikipedia has a list of PDF software.
Look at iText - I've used that before and it works well.
(It is Java-based, but you said "C or C++ is preferred", not required)
How large is the system you're targeting? If you can afford to run a Python interpreter and a copy of Inkscape (no X needed), there's a great toolchain available.
Last time I faced the kind of problem space you're in, I used Inkscape to render SVG to PDF in non-GUI mode, as follows:
inkscape --without-gui --export-pdf=foo.pdf foo.svg
...where the SVG is built using template substitution. (In doing this in the past, I used the Genshi template language for building the templates, which happens to interoperate wonderfully with Inkscape's GUI functionality -- Inkscape-the-GUI-SVG-editor doesn't remove tags in namespaces it doesn't recognize, so you can edit a SVG template in Inkscape even after marking it up to work as a Genshi template!)
My use case was automatic generation of cover pages for outgoing fax jobs; a complete set of scripts implementing this method for HylaFAX+ is available in the mailing list archive here.
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What do you consider the most rapid RAD environment for a working prototype? Not for debate.
language
platform
IDE
DB
(personal note)
Thank you.
P.S.1 I was pretty happy with PERL for back-end prototyping... I get stuck when dealing with the UI... it doesn't seem to come as easy...
It's all pretty subjective I guess, but as you asked 'what do you consider', so...
Delphi 7 onwards (technically object pascal or Delphi language, I guess)
Windows 2003/XP
version 7 is the classic, newer ones don't seem as easy to prototype stuff in (to me)
SQL Express
in comparison I've used VB6, MS VC++ (from a long time ago), FoxPro/Windows and Visual FoxPro, and a very small smattering of VS2005 (C#). For me, Delphi is the all-round king every time. :-)
For prototypes on Windows, Visual Basic is hard to beat. If you need to suppoort another platform (or multiple platforms), then Tcl/Tk is fairly productive, as well.
I've always considered Perl to be my prototyping language of choice, for a few reasons:
CPAN - There's a module for just about anything.
It's easy to create hacks to mimic, fake or do something quick and dirty.
It works everywhere.
I think "most rapid" is heavily subjective. A developer with many years in VB will likely be fastest at prototyping in VB. A Java developer in Java. Ruby in Ruby. The "most rapid", then, is going to be heavily skewed by the assets (code libraries, developer experience and tools) you already have in house.
What you define as a "prototype" also heavily affects things. Is a set of pseudo-working screen shots mocked up in Flash to have some clickability for navigation enough? What is the required feature set and what is the target audience for the prototype?
As you can see "best" is going to vary pretty widely. It's probably close to certain that the language will be high-level and the IDE tools are going to have nice UI designers (assuming the prototype has a UI). If you have a lot of DB work, then database wizards that do the SQL grunt work for you will save time and generate reasonable, if not optimized, objects. The platform would likely be whatever platform the prototype should be for - after all prototyping a Windows app under Linux or a Symbian app under Palm OS probably won't give you too much benefit.
VFP is great for prototyping. I've seen posts (sorry, don't have links) from Microsoft teams where they say WPF allows fast prototyping for them.
Enthought Python Distribution. You create the model of your problem in python and then you say "create a UI for that" in one line of code. If you don't like some parts of the UI, you override the defaults for those parts (and nothing else).
Doesn't get faster than that if you're doing a Desktop app.
The resulting prototype will work on Windows, Linux and Mac.
If you're looking for a web RAD, I suggest to give Grails or TurboGears a try. TurboGears is easier to use, Grails gives you access to the vast space of Java web frameworks (hard to beat).
I'd say Python with wxPython
I find that prototyping using the Netbeans GUI builder gives me a great start. I'm a Java programmer mostly though.
Try out Axure RP Pro.
We did give it a try and found that it to be really very good. It generates the whole prototype in HTML with a few JavaScripts so it becomes easy to distribute prototypes.
Do check it out.
Handcraft
When you prototype any GUI interactively in the browser, you can go from as low or high fidelity as you want. Handcraft is focused exactly on prototyping, so it does a whole lot less than IDE's intentionally.
For working prototype:
non-gui: python
gui: ruby on rails
For mockups don't use IDE but some specialized mockup tool, read this here on SO: Whats the best way to create interactive application prototypes?
For hybrid approach (mockups then code): QT designer is the only viable option I found, due to it's specific architecture
There you go.
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I know and have Xcode, but I was wondering if there were any other complete development environments that support Objective-C? I'm not looking for solutions with vim or emacs, nor editors like BBEdit that support syntax highlighting, but a full fledged IDE with:
code completion
compilation
debugging
refactoring
Extra points for being cross platform, supporting vi key bindings and supporting other languages.
Note:
I've updated and accepted my answer below as Jetbrains has released Early Access for AppCode, their new Objective-C IDE. Since this has been a fairly popular question, I thought it worthwhile to update the information.
I recently learned that Jetbrains the make of my favorite IDE (Idea) may support Objective-C (though it is unclear how much it will work for iPhone/iPad development). See the thread here for early discussion on this.
In the last year or two, they have started adding additional language support both in their flagship IDE as well as specialized IDEs (for Ruby, Python, PHP). I guess this is just another step in the process. I for one would love to have another option other than XCode and I couldn't think of one that I'd love more.
This is obviously vaporware at the moment, but I think it is something to keep an eye on.
This is now a real product, albeit still in Early Access. See here for a the blog on this new product, which will give you pointers to check out the EAP.
UPDATE: AppCode has now been released and offers a true alternative to using Xcode for Objective-C and iPhone/iPad/Mac development. It does still rely on Interface Builder for layout and wiring of GUI components and uses the iOS simulator, but all coding, including a slew of refactorings, smart templating and static analysis, is available through App Code.
Textmate is an editor like BBEdit but it has the ability to run commands such as compilation, debugging, refactoring (though it will do so via XCode). It also has code completion.
In addition, you can write your own commands for Textmate that you can then run.
I have been searching for something like this that does NOT run on mac for quite a few months now. Unfortunately I think that due to the relative obscurity of the Objective-C language that nobody has ever bothered producing such a full featured IDE for it. Until now, and we only have Xcode.
Using JBuilder I fell in love with the auto-completion and displaying the function 'hints' on the screen while I type. I am that sort of person who remembers the 'ideas' better than the actual syntax and really benefits from knowing right then and there that the code I typed was correct, not having to find out a minute later at compile time. And then to have to try and figure out if I just misspelled something, or if I truly made a conceptual error due to a misunderstanding of proper use of the language. Code completion and hints have always saved time on this for me.
I know some people may look down on this and say the feature is unnecessary if you know what you're doing, but I never claimed to be better than anyone else.
I may have to just give up and try and get OS X running on my PC. Which doesnt bother me in the least, just the rebooting to go back and forth to windows. I've tried to run it virtualized under VMWare but XCode kept crashing :( That reminds me I am going to google 'leopard vmware' and see if any progress has been made in that area.
Another problem in designing a full code-completion system with objective C is that the syntax is a little more forgiving, I dont know the exact technical term (strongly typed?) it is much harder to say exactly what sort of object belongs in a certain parameter and ANY object can be sent ANY message whether it implements that function or not. So you can spell a function name wrong, but it doesnt necessarily mean you made a syntax error... maybe you mean to call a function of that OTHER name and you just want nothing to be done if the function is not implemented by your object.
That's what I would really like to see for Objective-C, is an IDE that once it notices you are sending a message to an object, it displays a list of methods and function definitions that the object is known to accept, and walks you through filling in the parameters.
I think you would waste less time by sticking with Xcode rather than looking for another IDE if you want to develop for the Mac (or iPhone).
Apple made a lot of effort to kill any competitor in that area to make sure any developer wanting to develop for the Mac platform use Xcode and only Xcode.
It might not be the best IDE but it does work well and it is the IDE developers at Apple are using. Somehow it does its job. The frameworks and the documentation are very well integrated.
I use TextMate a lot and also SubEthaEdit but they are not full IDE as you’ve described above.
Best Regards.
Check out JetBrains' new IDE called "App Code". It's still in the Early Access Program, but even with the Early Access bugs it is hands-down better than xcode 4. I've been using it for commercial iPhone and iPad development.
http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/
I would like to second Troy's answer and note that JetBrains has AppCode in early access, so you can try it for free. It has the familiar UI of their other products, and yes, it supports vi! So far it has been very good. I have run into a few issues, and a few vi-isms that don't work quite right, but it is still better than suffering with Xcode. I do text editing with syntax completion in AppCode, but switch back to XCode to get into the GUI builder which is actually quite good in Xcode.
If you are an old vi-guy like myself, it is invaluable.
The short answer is: No. There are thousands of IDEs but Xcode is the only one which you seriously can name IDE. I suggest you have a look at the tries of GNUStep (in form of Projectcenter, Gorm) and then you can imagine the state of affairs.
I believe KDevelop is the only full IDE that supports Obj-C, but I'm not even sure how fully it supports it, having never used it myself. Worth a shot, maybe.
There are a few programmers text editors that support Objective-C, but I like Editra, mainly because I also write Python on Windows\Nix and it has great features. Editra runs well on all platforms and has a nice plug-in that supports Mercurial, GIT, and Subversion if you need them. Another nice thing, its written in Python. Editra Home
Found another, though it sounds less than ideal:
ActiveDeveloper - doesn't appear to have active support (last update was in 2006). Mac only.
KDevelop sounds like it only supports Objective-C syntax and only through its C support. I'm going to check it out anyway.
Textmate has a couple screencasts for Objective-C (here and here). It is Mac only, but otherwise looks pretty good. It is hard to tell from the screencast how strong the integrated support is as it seems to just have a lot of scripts to handle the code. Also, I can't tell if it does true code completion or just expansion for snippets.
So it doesn't look like there is anything out there that hits everything. I'll probably do most of my development on Mac, so I'm thinking I'll try out TextMate with XCode to see if it is any better than straight XCode. I'll take a quick look at KDevelop.
Thanks.