PB 2.0 and Next OS Release
Looks like Apple is gearing up to release some software updates. The new DevTools have just gone into beta (Including Project Builder 2.0 and support for gcc 3.1 which means much more speed). Interestingly, these should be launching in the next couple of weeks (I would guess in about 4-5 weeks), and it has been said that they would launch with a new version of the OS...
<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Here's some of the real info:
[quote]
What Makes This a Beta Release?
The beta-quality components included in this release which are:
1)\tThe gcc3 compiler is included for evaluation purposes. We recommend that you do not deploy software built using this version of gcc3 in a commercial or in-house operating environment. Although internally at Apple we have built and run nearly the entire Mac OS X operating system using gcc3, we have not yet extensively tested the gcc3 code generation or tuned its performance.
The system default compiler in this release (/usr/bin/cc) is the production gcc 2.95.2 compiler. Use that compiler to build applications for deployment. See the GCC release notes and the Project Builder release notes to learn how to switch to gcc3 for evaluation purposes (and back again for deployment).
We anticipate making gcc3 the default compiler in the next release of the Developer Tools, and removing the gcc 2.95.2 compiler in a future release. The gcc3 compiler is stricter about language specification compliance and the C++ Standard Template Library has changed. You may need to make source code changes when you switch to gcc3.
We are especially interested in feedback about any compiler crashes or performance regressions. In such cases, please file bug reports with detailed information and reproducible test cases.
2)\tThe Project Builder 2.0 Beta introduces many new features such as a new multi-window UI configuration option. Most (but not all) of the planned features are now in place, and wed like your feedback.
This version of Project Builder (and prereleases of it) have been used internally at Apple during most of its development. We are confident that this version is stable enough for day-to-day development. However, bear in mind that as a Beta release it has not received the level of testing we would perform for a full GM-quality release, and you should regularly back up your data while using this software.
Project Builder 2.0 Beta, like most previous releases, upgrades project files when you open projects for the first time. Projects which have been upgraded should not be reopened in older versions of Project Builder; instead, you should archive a copy of your current project file before opening it with Project Builder 2.0 Beta. Since this is a prerelease of the tools, you may want to consider whether you wish to commit yourself to upgrading any particular project. You can always use this release of Project Builder on a copy of your project to try it out.
Due to the amount of UI change in this Beta release, we have not had time to localize Project Builder into Japanese. This is planned for the final release of Project Builder 2.0.
3)\tThe Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, v 1.3.1 API reference documentation is not present in this release. You can install the Java 1.3.1 Update 1 Developer release to get that documentation.
4)\tDebugging with gdb from within the ProjectBuilderWO IDE does not work. Debugging with gdb from the command line in a Terminal window should work fine.
We are evaluating the continued need for ProjectBuilderWO for our next release. If ProjectBuilderWO is still important for you, please send an explanation of why to [email protected].
NOTE: The ProjectBuilderWO IDE is no longer part of the Developer.mpkg package, so it must now be installed separately from the Developer.mpkg if you need it. The DevPBWO.pkg package is in the Packages folder.
What's New in the April 2002 Developer Tools
This April 2002 release of the Developer Tools includes the following major additions and updates, compared with the December 2001 release. Minor changes were also made in some other components. After installation, various release notes can be found in /Developer/Documentation/ReleaseNotes, which can be accessed from the release notes shown within Project Builder.
-- The gcc 3 compiler is included as pre-release, beta software intended for evaluation purposes. It can be used with C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ source code. For information on how to switch to gcc 3 for evaluation purposes, please read the GCC3 release notes and the Project Builder release notes.
gcc 3 is the biggest change for gcc in ten years and represents two years of development. It offers the following benefits over gcc 2:
\t-\tFaster compilation times due to new precompiled header mechanism. Now C++ code can take advantage of precompiled headers as well.
\t-\tBetter code optimization and generation. If you avoided turning on optimization in the past, now would be a good time to try it again.
\t-\tBetter C++ support. In addition to supporting precompiled headers for C++, gcc 3 contains the following improvements:
\t\tA more stable and efficient application binary interface (ABI).
\t\tA new C++ standard library, including better support for the Standard Template Library.
\t\tBetter compliance with the ISO C99 and ISO ANSI C++ specifications.
Note that gcc3's new ABI requires recompiling all C++ libraries and frameworks.
-- Project Builder 2.0 Beta has many changes; please read the release notes included in Project Builder for details. The most major changes are:
\t-\tThe overall user interface is now highly configurable, in response to user demand. There are three primary default configurations Single Window (the previous UI), Some Windows, or Many Windows, and you can customize the UI from there if necessary.
\t-\tSupport for using the gcc3 compiler. Note that the gcc 2.95.2 compiler is still the default (/usr/bin/cc), but it is easy to switch a project to use gcc, or switch the system default as a whole.
\t-- Interface Builder 2.2.1 includes some bug fixes; please read the Release Notes included in Interface Builder for full details. In addition, the Interface Builder examples in /Developer/Examples/InterfaceBuilder/ are updated to use typed outlets where applicable.
\t-- AppleScript Studio 1.1 adds new functionality, including new classes (such as user-defaults) and new commands, as well as fixes a number of bugs. In addition, a beta version of revised documentation is included, as well as a preliminary version of a new Inside Mac OS X: AppleScript Studio Terminology Reference manual.
NOTE: The AppleScript Studio tutorial application formerly known as "Watson" is now called "Mail Search", but the documentation has not yet been updated to reflect that.
-- Changes in the gdb debugger for C-based languages include:
\t-\tHardware (page-protection) watchpoint support.
\t-\tSignificant bug fixes for improved stability, for example when stepping over code that generates signals.
\t-\tBetter support for debugging C++ code, particularly for gcc3-compiled code
-- Thread Viewer includes several improvements and bug fixes. Backtraces can be copied from Thread Viewer and pasted into bug reports. Thread Viewer has an experimental feature that graphs additional metrics such as the number of calls to lock functions or malloc.
-- Sampler will display its reports in terms of the number of seconds, percentage of total time, or number of samples where a function was found on the call stack. This version also fixes a bug that appeared after Mac OS X 10.1.2 where launching a CFM binary in Sampler would crash Sampler. Sampler now watches the program with a separate, high-priority thread, so sampling data should be more accurate.
-- New and updated documentation. Lots of new documentation content is included in this release. Please check the various whats new portions of the documentation for more information. Documentation changes include the following:
\t-\tCocoa API reference documentation is now complete!
\t-\tUpdated Carbon documentation
\t-\tUpdated Darwin documentation
\t-\tMachO Runtime Architecture manual (preliminary draft)
\t-\tUpdated Project Builder documentation
\t-\tBeta versions of AppleScript Studio documentation:
\t\t\tBuilding Applications with AppleScript Studio (updated)
\t\t\tAppleScript Studio Terminology Reference (new)
<hr></blockquote>
<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Here's some of the real info:
[quote]
What Makes This a Beta Release?
The beta-quality components included in this release which are:
1)\tThe gcc3 compiler is included for evaluation purposes. We recommend that you do not deploy software built using this version of gcc3 in a commercial or in-house operating environment. Although internally at Apple we have built and run nearly the entire Mac OS X operating system using gcc3, we have not yet extensively tested the gcc3 code generation or tuned its performance.
The system default compiler in this release (/usr/bin/cc) is the production gcc 2.95.2 compiler. Use that compiler to build applications for deployment. See the GCC release notes and the Project Builder release notes to learn how to switch to gcc3 for evaluation purposes (and back again for deployment).
We anticipate making gcc3 the default compiler in the next release of the Developer Tools, and removing the gcc 2.95.2 compiler in a future release. The gcc3 compiler is stricter about language specification compliance and the C++ Standard Template Library has changed. You may need to make source code changes when you switch to gcc3.
We are especially interested in feedback about any compiler crashes or performance regressions. In such cases, please file bug reports with detailed information and reproducible test cases.
2)\tThe Project Builder 2.0 Beta introduces many new features such as a new multi-window UI configuration option. Most (but not all) of the planned features are now in place, and wed like your feedback.
This version of Project Builder (and prereleases of it) have been used internally at Apple during most of its development. We are confident that this version is stable enough for day-to-day development. However, bear in mind that as a Beta release it has not received the level of testing we would perform for a full GM-quality release, and you should regularly back up your data while using this software.
Project Builder 2.0 Beta, like most previous releases, upgrades project files when you open projects for the first time. Projects which have been upgraded should not be reopened in older versions of Project Builder; instead, you should archive a copy of your current project file before opening it with Project Builder 2.0 Beta. Since this is a prerelease of the tools, you may want to consider whether you wish to commit yourself to upgrading any particular project. You can always use this release of Project Builder on a copy of your project to try it out.
Due to the amount of UI change in this Beta release, we have not had time to localize Project Builder into Japanese. This is planned for the final release of Project Builder 2.0.
3)\tThe Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, v 1.3.1 API reference documentation is not present in this release. You can install the Java 1.3.1 Update 1 Developer release to get that documentation.
4)\tDebugging with gdb from within the ProjectBuilderWO IDE does not work. Debugging with gdb from the command line in a Terminal window should work fine.
We are evaluating the continued need for ProjectBuilderWO for our next release. If ProjectBuilderWO is still important for you, please send an explanation of why to [email protected].
NOTE: The ProjectBuilderWO IDE is no longer part of the Developer.mpkg package, so it must now be installed separately from the Developer.mpkg if you need it. The DevPBWO.pkg package is in the Packages folder.
What's New in the April 2002 Developer Tools
This April 2002 release of the Developer Tools includes the following major additions and updates, compared with the December 2001 release. Minor changes were also made in some other components. After installation, various release notes can be found in /Developer/Documentation/ReleaseNotes, which can be accessed from the release notes shown within Project Builder.
-- The gcc 3 compiler is included as pre-release, beta software intended for evaluation purposes. It can be used with C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ source code. For information on how to switch to gcc 3 for evaluation purposes, please read the GCC3 release notes and the Project Builder release notes.
gcc 3 is the biggest change for gcc in ten years and represents two years of development. It offers the following benefits over gcc 2:
\t-\tFaster compilation times due to new precompiled header mechanism. Now C++ code can take advantage of precompiled headers as well.
\t-\tBetter code optimization and generation. If you avoided turning on optimization in the past, now would be a good time to try it again.
\t-\tBetter C++ support. In addition to supporting precompiled headers for C++, gcc 3 contains the following improvements:
\t\tA more stable and efficient application binary interface (ABI).
\t\tA new C++ standard library, including better support for the Standard Template Library.
\t\tBetter compliance with the ISO C99 and ISO ANSI C++ specifications.
Note that gcc3's new ABI requires recompiling all C++ libraries and frameworks.
-- Project Builder 2.0 Beta has many changes; please read the release notes included in Project Builder for details. The most major changes are:
\t-\tThe overall user interface is now highly configurable, in response to user demand. There are three primary default configurations Single Window (the previous UI), Some Windows, or Many Windows, and you can customize the UI from there if necessary.
\t-\tSupport for using the gcc3 compiler. Note that the gcc 2.95.2 compiler is still the default (/usr/bin/cc), but it is easy to switch a project to use gcc, or switch the system default as a whole.
\t-- Interface Builder 2.2.1 includes some bug fixes; please read the Release Notes included in Interface Builder for full details. In addition, the Interface Builder examples in /Developer/Examples/InterfaceBuilder/ are updated to use typed outlets where applicable.
\t-- AppleScript Studio 1.1 adds new functionality, including new classes (such as user-defaults) and new commands, as well as fixes a number of bugs. In addition, a beta version of revised documentation is included, as well as a preliminary version of a new Inside Mac OS X: AppleScript Studio Terminology Reference manual.
NOTE: The AppleScript Studio tutorial application formerly known as "Watson" is now called "Mail Search", but the documentation has not yet been updated to reflect that.
-- Changes in the gdb debugger for C-based languages include:
\t-\tHardware (page-protection) watchpoint support.
\t-\tSignificant bug fixes for improved stability, for example when stepping over code that generates signals.
\t-\tBetter support for debugging C++ code, particularly for gcc3-compiled code
-- Thread Viewer includes several improvements and bug fixes. Backtraces can be copied from Thread Viewer and pasted into bug reports. Thread Viewer has an experimental feature that graphs additional metrics such as the number of calls to lock functions or malloc.
-- Sampler will display its reports in terms of the number of seconds, percentage of total time, or number of samples where a function was found on the call stack. This version also fixes a bug that appeared after Mac OS X 10.1.2 where launching a CFM binary in Sampler would crash Sampler. Sampler now watches the program with a separate, high-priority thread, so sampling data should be more accurate.
-- New and updated documentation. Lots of new documentation content is included in this release. Please check the various whats new portions of the documentation for more information. Documentation changes include the following:
\t-\tCocoa API reference documentation is now complete!
\t-\tUpdated Carbon documentation
\t-\tUpdated Darwin documentation
\t-\tMachO Runtime Architecture manual (preliminary draft)
\t-\tUpdated Project Builder documentation
\t-\tBeta versions of AppleScript Studio documentation:
\t\t\tBuilding Applications with AppleScript Studio (updated)
\t\t\tAppleScript Studio Terminology Reference (new)
<hr></blockquote>
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