I am new to cocoa and os x. I have developed an application that is meant for 10.5 and above. I have got 10.7 os x with me. Is there a way to simulate the testing without having to have real machines ? or atleast find as to at which places I am calling cocoa api which might not be available on any of the supported platforms ?
Thanks,
If you have the access you could install VMWare Fusion and load different versions of OSX into the VM to test the application.
You could also go into your build settings and set OS X Deployment Target to different versions of OS X. This would at least see if your application would build using that versions compiler.
Related
here is my dev/project settings:
Deployment Target - 10.6
SDK: 10.9
Architecture: Universal 32/64.
Now when I archive and try to run it on ML 10.8 (other machine not my dev machine); It crashes and gives me "Classic environment is o longer supported" error.
I have not tested it yet on 10.6 though but what is the best way to keep my app running fine on all of them 10.6+ ?
Also I am using ASIHTTP and setting it to "-fno-objc-arc" in build-phases.
Please help.
I have set my project's Deployment Target to 10.6 to support older machines.
The Classic environment is no longer supported shouldn't be occurring based on the information your provide, as that refers to code written for OS 9, not OS X. However, based off of my own experience (this question), besides setting the deployment target to 10.6, you must also turn off base internationalization and auto layout for your NIBs. Good luck!
I am developing an app using Xcode 4.6 on an OS X 10.8 machine. The app deployment target is set to 10.6, which is what we need to support. But when I archive the app (compile, link and embed resources+frameworks) and deploy (aka copy) it to the 10.6 test machine, it crashes with a generic Segmentation fault. It works fine on 10.7.
I can't compile the project in Xcode on the older Mac because the app is built using the newer compiler (it uses ARC, implicit property synthesis, the new objective-c literal syntax, etc.). It also wouldn't type check because the base SDK is 10.8 and it references some 10.8 tokens which the compiler on the 10.6 machine doesn't know about.
Any suggestions on how to go about debugging the app?
I'm not affiliated with this company/software in any way, but Deploymate is a paid app which can scan your app for SDK usage and tell you when you are calling selectors and APIs that are unavailable on older OS versions. This can help you track down exceptions and crashes relating to API usage.
You are very likely using one or more 10.7+ APIs that crash on 10.6. With a 10.8 target SDK you allow all the calls to function that are available in that SDK. However apps are bound late so this doesn't crash when you do not actually call those functions. You need an explicit check similar to this (here for the full screen feature):
#if MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED > MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_6
if (runningOnLionOrLater) {
[mainWindow setCollectionBehavior: NSWindowCollectionBehaviorFullScreenPrimary];
[toggleFullscreenItem setHidden: NO];
}
#endif
One way to determine the current version is:
int macVersion;
if (Gestalt(gestaltSystemVersion, &macVersion) == noErr) {
runningOnLionOrLater = macVersion > MAC_OS_X_VERSION_10_6;
}
For debugging the problematic calls simply set the base SDK to 10.6 and XCode should mark those functions that are not available there.
While there is no real good solution to this (I've seen simply different behaviors on different macOS versions) and no way to simply simulate an older macOS version, if you have a machine to spare:
It is possible to use an external HD, partition it and install different macOS versions. They all can be bootable and it's a matter (pain) of restarting the machine for every OS version.
I have developed a Cocoa App on Lion and now I would like to add compatibility with Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I tried to set the development target to 10.5 but it still has crash problems on Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I tried also to open the project with old versions of Xcode, but I get hundreds of compile errors (I guess it's because I can't compile the program with the old Mac OS SDK)
Do you have any advice about solving the retro-compatibility problems of Cocoa Apps?
I think it's generally not a very good idea to develop for the latest OS then try to support older OSes at the last minute. If you've used any APIs that were introduced in an OS later than the oldest you're trying to support, you'll have to rewrite code to avoid using those APIs. It's generally not worth the trouble.
That said, there's no secret to supporting older OSes. You just need to make sure that you only use APIs (classes, methods, functions) that are available on the oldest OS you're trying to support. You'll notice when looking at the documentation that for each method, under "Availability", it will tell you which versions of the OS include that method. Something like:
Availability
Available in Mac OS X v10.6 and later.
Assuming you don't use any APIs not available on an OS version you're targeting, all you need to do is set the deployment target to the lowest OS you're targeting, and build. You will of course also want to test thoroughly on each OS version you're supporting.
Your question would be easier to answer in more detail if you elaborated on the "crash problems" you're seeing on Leopard and Snow Leopard.
First, install the 10.5 SDK on your Mac. This may not be necessary, but do it anyway. You can find instructions on the Internet. Keep in mind that compiling with the 10.5 SDK will ensure compatibility, but you won't be able to use newer OS X features unless you load them dynamically.
Second, go into your .xib files and on the File Properties tab (first notch in the Inspector pane) disable auto layout and set the deployment target to 10.5.
I am developping a Mac application requiring Mac OS 10.6. However I am interested to add a Lion specific feature (fullscreen support).
What is the way to properly manage that (I am planning to use the Mac App Store):
2 different versions?
a "special" version combining 2 version and using automatically the right one depending of the system?
Thanks
Set Base SDK to Lion, but the Deployment Target to the oldest version you want to support, and the newer features are available via weak linking
I am new here and new in Xcode world.
I made a simple app with Xcode 3.2 on Snow Leopard.
The resulting built app works on snow leopard, however it will not even start on leopard (10.5.8) - I get message "You cannot use this version of application with this version of Mac OS X". Is it normal?
Or is there a way to make app that will work both on Snow Leopard and Leopard? Please advise, as I have no way to find out myself
Thanks for any input
You need to change the deployment target in your Build Settings. You should set it to the lowest version of OS X that you're willing to provide support for. You should set your base SDK to the latest available public SDK.
If you do this, you must ensure that you only use new 10.6-only APIs after doing runtime checks for their existence. To do this, you can use functions like NSClassFromString and respondsToSelector:.
Any Frameworks or libraries that are new to 10.6 should be weak-linked. This will prevent the app from trying to load those frameworks on 10.5 and thus cause the program to crash when it doesn't find the frameworks.
All explained in the SDK Compatibility Guide from Apple (Requires (free) login).