Write a tutorial on compiling BRL-CAD with XCode on Mac OS X

Write a tutorial on compiling BRL-CAD with XCode on Mac OS XBRL-CAD

Status: ClosedTime to complete: 48 hrs Mentors: SeanTags: writing, tutorial, XCode, Mac OS X

BRL-CAD uses the CMake build system to generate outputs for a variety of platforms. It will output Makefiles, Microsoft Visual Studio build files, XCode project files, Eclipse build files and more.

This task involves generating an XCode project, compiling BRL-CAD from within XCode, demonstrating the BRL-CAD Benchmark in action (within XCode), and running MGED (from within XCode). Document the process on our wiki as a continuation of an existing tutorial (/Compiling/XCode). You're basically expanding/replacing the Finishing section with more steps and sections. Include screen shot images when referring to visual actions within XCode.

References:

http://www.cmake.org/
http://brlcad.org/wiki/
http://brlcad.org/wiki/Compiling/XCode

Uploaded Work

File name/URL	File size	Date submitted
http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=...	n/a	December 15 2012 22:17 UTC

Comments

bwannowon December 6 2012 15:26 UTCTask Claimed

I would like to work on this task.

bwannowon December 6 2012 15:27 UTCFormatting

What format should I submit the file in?

Daniel Rossberg on December 6 2012 15:30 UTCTask Assigned

This task has been assigned to bwannow. You have 48 hours to complete this task, good luck!

Daniel Rossberg on December 6 2012 15:31 UTCYou have to edit the wiki page

mentioned in this task's description.

bwannowon December 6 2012 19:19 UTCClaim Removed

The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.

Melange on December 14 2012 01:04 UTCTask Claimed

I would like to work on this task.

Sean on December 14 2012 01:14 UTCTask Assigned

This task has been assigned to Arjun Govindjee. You have 48 hours to complete this task, good luck!

Melange on December 14 2012 07:02 UTCIssues with cmake

Hmmm...cmake hangs (what appears to be a busy loop - 100% CPU for literally hours) while attempting to generate the Xcode project (cmake 2.8-10). I am still doing research as to why, but this task might end up being impossible :(

I also plan on trying out some older and newer (dev builds?) of cmake to see if that will generate the Xcode project as intended.

Melange on December 15 2012 01:49 UTCSolved

Using an older cmake (v2.8.4) worked, evidently this is a bug in the newer cmake versions.

Melange on December 15 2012 04:51 UTCNevermind

Cmake 2.8.4 turns out to make invalid Xcode projects and later versions (I tested dev builds too) are not working.

I am returning this task because at this time it appears to be impossible to generate the xcode project with cmake.

Melange on December 15 2012 04:51 UTCClaim Removed

The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.

Sean on December 15 2012 05:46 UTCreclaim it

Arjun, It's not your fault that CMake isn't working right. If you reclaim the task, you can submit a brief summary of what you tried (which versions, what steps you took, what commands you ran), and we'll close the task as completed.

Melange on December 15 2012 06:53 UTCTask Claimed

I would like to work on this task.

Sean on December 15 2012 06:57 UTCTask Assigned

This task has been assigned to Arjun Govindjee. You have 48 hours to complete this task, good luck!

Melange on December 15 2012 06:59 UTCSummary

I ran cmake versions 2.8.4 (the minimum for brlcad) through 2.8.10. 2.8.4 was the only one that generated an xcode project, however the xcode project was somehow corrupted and would not open. 2.8.5 through 2.8.7 through an error about not being able to test the xcode because the command sytax cmake was attempting to test with was outdated (for the program xcodebuild). 2.8.8 through 2.8.10 all would become frozen taking 100% CPU after printing "Generating Done" in the console. When cmake would freeze there would be no xcode project file whatsoever in the build directory.

The command to generate an xcode project is: cmake -G Xcode ..

Sean on December 15 2012 07:02 UTCalso...

Arjun, I'd also ask that you file a bug report with the CMake developers so that they're aware of the problem: http://www.cmake.org/Bug/

Provide them the exact steps so they can reproduce the bug, something like this:

svn co https://brlcad.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/brlcad/brlcad/trunk brlcad

cd brlcad

mkdir .build

cd .build

cmake .. -D.....

Open XCode project

... hangs ....

It should be whatever steps you tried (they can probably be the same ones that you report back here).

Sean on December 15 2012 07:05 UTCthat looks pretty good

So actually, what you just wrote looks good for a bug report to them. They may ask for additional information or may be aware of the issue, but it looks good to me. Be sure to include your version of Mac OS X and XCode in your report. Paste the link back here so we can track it and I'll mark this closed!

Melange on December 15 2012 22:15 UTCNot necessary

See this: http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=13354

They have it nailed and plan on fixing it for 2.8.11. Hopefully when 2.8.11 rolls around, or a dev build in the nearer future, someone can write the tutorial. If I happen to notice that the bug was fixed, I will log in to the wiki and finish it myself, but that could be pretty far into the future :(

Melange on December 15 2012 22:17 UTCReady for review

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

Sean on December 16 2012 05:32 UTCTask Closed

Congratulations, this task has been completed successfully.

Sean on December 16 2012 05:32 UTCvery well

Thanks for the reference to the existing bug. If you see that they provide a new release that fixes the bug before GCI ends, let us know and we can create another task to try the tutorial again.