I am playing around with SystemConfiguration on Mac OS X and in Technical Q&A QA1165 the sample code uses a macro MoreSCError that is supposedly define in the sample program MoreSCF - I can't find this sample code in the Xcode documentation or on the Apple Developer Site.
Does anyone know where I might find the code?
I'm looking at MoreSCF.c on my machine here and it's really old. The version I have is "revision 1.5" and dates from 2002.
The fact you can't easily find it on Apple's Developer Site (or Google for that matter), probably indicates that Apple would rather developers not use this code. System Configuration framework is still very much supported on the Macintosh, but I can't think of what has replaced MoreSCF (in terms of sample code) off the top of my head. It would likely be worth your file to find the MoreSCF replacement and work with that.
But... to help you out, I'm making the MoreSCF.h and MoreSCF.c sample code that I have available via PasteBin. I'll set it to expire in a month so if you don't retrieve it before the end of the 30 days, you'll be S.O.L. And even though this is public, redistributable source code, if somebody asks me to remove the links (and especially if they speak up with what the newer source or sample project is), I'll remove it prior to 30 days. These two files come out of the MoreSCF project, which has ~10 or so various C files for making System Configuration stuff easier.
Here are the links:
MoreSCF.h
MoreSCF.c
you can find your required source code here
https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/samplecode/MoreSCF/Introduction/Intro.html
Related
My company does Linux embedded systems using Freescale PowerPC processors.
Some years back I wrote an internal HowTo on how to use Dan Kegel's crosstool to set up a cross compiler environment for our product. I hadn't touched it since then but I recently tried it and found it doesn't work. The scripts look for files on redhat.com's ftp server that are currently not there.
The latest cross tool script is the one I am using, version 0.43.
So before I roll up my sleeves and see if I can fix it myself, I am wondering if someone has already done this. Does anyone here know Kegel well enough to contact him and ask if he is planning to do an update? (My guess is not. He works at Google now.)
Alternatively, is there a better GNU cross tool builder than Kegel's cross tool? It might be easier to switch over than to update the old one.
As it turns out Mr. Kegel was kind enough to respond to my e-mail. It turns out his original scripts have been picked up by an open-source group that calls it crosstool-ng. They did an amazing amount of work on this and the tool now uses a curses-based menu system to select the options for the cross development to generate.
You can search for file names directly in Google (try '<filename> site:ftp.redhat.com' or something similar), and often results will yield revised links to the files. If that is the problem, it should just be a case of cut and paste. Alternately, I would recommend downloading the files locally, modifying the script to see them there and then bundling them with the script.
Kegel left Google for a startup. His resume is at http://www.kegel.com/resume.html . Have you tried emailing him? He might just respond.
i'm facing a challenge of rebrushing and updating an almost 10-years old Screenweaver project, and looking for a decent modern swf-exe convertor. Don't have much time to evaluate all the options, therefore i'd like to hear responses with actual working experience with such a tool.
Since WinAPI interaction is a must, the default projector is not an option.
Similar questions (no concrete answers there)
Package SWF into an EXE or APP
Create an EXE from a SWF using Flex 3 without requiring AIR?
Many thanks
UPD: 300 bounty for anyone who can help me with a practical answer.
I've been experimenting with different SWF projectors for a long time now, and so far I think I've tried most if not all of them. I've explained in more detail the best projectors I have used below.
MDM Zinc
http://www.multidmedia.com/software/zinc/
I remember back in when I had Vista that MDM had quite a few bugs running under that OS. It took a while for them to fix those bugs - the bugs didn't stop it from running, but really interfered with the functioning of some methods in the program. For this reason, I decided not to continue testing Zinc and moved on to another projector. Saying that though, I'm certain they have fixed those bugs now.
The program itself has a nice intuitive interface, and allows you create screensaver as well as EXEs (which is obviously good for you).
The product is pricey - currently at $349.99, so this put me off.
You can also generate Mac and Linux projectors which is very attractive, but requires an additional license for each which does cost a lot of money.
SWF Studio
http://www.northcode.com/
This was one of the projectors I really enjoyed working with. It's fully featured, has great community support and the developers are always on hand to help. The projectors it generates are compatible with all Windows operating systems, and I've never had any problems with bugs on this one.
Northcode also offer a student license for SWF Studio for $49. I nearly purchased a license with these guys but the only reason why I didn't was because I found another projector which was better for my scenario which I will come onto in a moment.
I can tell you that one of the reasons why I didn't use this projector (it does sound trivial) is because it had a large file size. SWF Studio allows you to select what size projector you want in terms of filesize - with options like tiny and compact I think but the smaller file types might have dependencies with other files in the directory. This means that you would have to bundle your application with some folders and additional files as well as the EXE itself.
SWF Studio also has the option to create screensavers.
mProjector
http://www.screentime.com/software/flash-projector
mProjector has gone up a version (from 3 to 4) since I last used it, so it may incorporate a lot more features in this version. I remember that the product is very good with transparency, and showcases some 'screen buddies' which use transparency to virtually walk about your screen. The reason why I didn't use this projector is because it didn't have as many Actionscript functions as I would have liked, but I believe it has a lot more nowadays. In your project this wouldn't be so much of a problem because you want a screensaver.
It is reasonably priced at $399 for both Windows and Mac compatibility, but you can buy just Windows or Mac if you wish for a cheaper price.
Janus Flash
I was going to explain this product in more detail but I have now realised that the website no longer exists! Janus is the projector I liked the most and ended up using because of the sheer amount of features available for use in your code.
Like all the projectors I have mentioned above, each one adds functionality to flash which you don't usually get with an SWF. Each product includes pre-built actionscript methods which can interface with the operating system itself to do things you can't do in the Flash sandbox. For example, each one of these projectors allows you to manipulate files (add, edit, delete e.t.c.) on the computer. Janus had the most methods available out of all the projectors I tried. This is partially because Janus used the .NET framework (which meant that .NET 2.0 was required on the system you were executing the projector on).
Also like MDM Zinc, this product allowed you to create applications for the Mac too. I managed to get a cheaper price too when I contacted them directly explaining that I was a student. I recently contacted Janus-Flash to ask about the future of the product, and they said that they may re-release Janus in the future, but for now it's off the market.
Some other products I have used which are worth a mention but I haven't explained in detail: SWFKit, Jugglor, F-IN-BOX (more developer releated as it required cutting code).
A quick search brings up these which might be worth a look: Flash2Me, Flash EXE Builder and SWF to Screensaver.
For your project I think the best option would be SWF Studio. It has lots of nice scripting features you can use to interface with the OS, and is nicely priced too at $299 for a full license.
I hope this helps in your decision for what projector to use, and will save you from trying out many different projectors like I did over several months!
We support a lot of Win32 functionality directly in our core API so chances are you may not even have to make a direct API call, but if you do...
SWF Studio has an advanced Plugin API that allows you to write custom plugins in C++, C# or VB.NET so you can call win32 or .NET functions. We created our own ummanaged to managed code shim so you can write a native .NET plugin and call it from SWF Studio just as easily as you can write a Win32 plugin.
There's no difference between how you call a SWF Studio function in AS2 or AS3. We have maintained 100% backward compatibility in our API. Whether you're using AS2 or AS3, your calls will just work. And they'll continue to work.
However, the place we really shine is support. I created SWF Studio and I'm still in the forums EVERY day answering questions and fixing bugs.
My experience here is from a year ago.
Having worked with mProjector I can tell you that the AS3 API is quite robust and easy to use. I was able to wrap a large swf-based project using external assets up into an EXE without a lot of problems. The UI for mProjector's project gui leaves something to be desired, but the actual hooks to the file system were easy to use.
The difficulty is that not all of it is documented. In fact there were as of a year ago a lot of undocumented packages.
My only real problem with mprojector was that in AS3 there wasn't any support for SharedObjects. Someone in their community worked around this and made their solution available. It does of course make use of storing a file on the local system.
This overall compared favorably against Zinc which was extraordinarily complex, slow to compile, and worse than having no documentation all the docs I needed were flat-out wrong.
I ruled out Jugglor almost immediately. It never successfuly compiled anything.
Since this is an old project you're talking about, and written in AS2, I can't speak to that side of it. I can say however that programs like Zinc and mProjector have been around a lot longer than AS3 has, and that the same hooks that are available in AS3 seemed to be available in AS2 also. The possibility exists that there may be more such hooks in AS2 since it's been supported for longer, but I cannot vouch for this at all.
I have used all of these applications, but most of all I liked theFlajector - a program that converts flash movies (swf) to exe files. You can include a flash player in generated applications and they will use it. In other words, the applications will work even if no flash player is installed. Also, Flajector can create windowless applications from flash movies. You can extend your applications using plugins. Using standard classes you can work with files and more.
I am quite familiar with MATLAB, although not so much with writing GUIs in it. Now my boss gave me a MATLAB program with GUI which was developed on a Windows machine and runs there without problems. I copied it to my mac (osx 10.6.5 with MATLAB R2009b) using a USB memory stick and tried to work on the files on my computer.
When starting the GUI, some of the callbacks are executed, some not. I was able to open the figure file containing the GUI in GUIDE, but there cannot click on the callback fields in the Property inspector. Also some components are not shown in GUIDE which are visible when running the GUI. First I suspected it might be corrupted by changed newline characters, but learned that .fig files are binary, so this should not be the case. I opened the binary .fig file with a text editor and found the following ASCII line followed by binary data:
MATLAB 5.0 MAT-file, Platform: PCWIN, Created on: Tue Aug 10 17:11:57 2010
Are the GUIs created with MATLAB OS specific? Wouldn't this be really stupid?
I opened the files on the windows machine again and tried to export them or save them by specifying that I want them to be compatible with other operating systems but could not find an option like this.
Of course I researched this on google, and wondered that I did not really find something related. If an incompatibility exists, I think this would have been discussed, right?
Anyone knows about it or had the same problem before?
Hmmm, ok. Well, the answer is quite embarrassing but still bears some potential to learn from it. The folder that my boss gave me contained a lot of files and figures with similar names, like:
bla1.fig
bla.fig
bla0.fig
the simple problem was, the first time I opened the figure with GUIDE I opened figure bla.fig instead of bla1.fig. After this I always used the reopen function of GUIDE and did not see that it was always the wrong file. this caused the problems.
==> so there is no incompatibility between Mac and PC, although I wonder why the platform is written in the file then
==> it could have been a problem with backwards-compatibility as the original figure was created with MATLAB 5
==> as #Adrian and #Mikhail pointed out: it would be very very useful to use a Version control system in order to prevent to have hundreds of files with different numbers where most of them are of no use anymore
There seems to be some incompatibilities between different platforms and also between different versions, from my experience (MATLAB 5, 6, and 7) also -- I've encountered similar situations many times.
I am not exactly sure when the GUIDE became available with MATLAB -- I first noticed about it when I was using the first version of MATLAB 7. (It used to be very unstable at first, but is very usable now. For example, I vaguely remember a critical issue with MATLAB 7 Student version. You had to download a patch to make the GUIs work.)
Does your boss know how the *.fig file was created and in which MATLAB version? Can you open the *.fig on the old version of MATLAB and display the GUI correctly?
Some functions have possibly become obsolete since the earlier version of MATLAB that was used to create the figure, and may be causing some minor problem with it. If that is the case, you can troubleshoot it by checking all the error and warning messages that appear on the Command Window (or the MATLAB Console.)
Also, you should be able to load the *.fig files on the workplace using the following command from the Command Window, assuming that the files are in MATLAB's search path.
load your_file.fig -mat
You should then see a structure dataset, and see all of the figure properties, etc. in that structure.
You can use the information to create a new figure without the GUIDE (GUI Development Environment / Tool).
I recommend you writing your own GUI app. It's not that difficult, with/without the GUIDE.
I recently opened a site with some Tips on MATLAB Programming for beginners and intermediate users, and update it in my spare time. If you have any specific question about GUI building, I may (or may not) be able to provide answers there...
OK, the Windows dev platform I have is a Windows XP box and a copy of Visual C++ 6.0. I'm trying to create or modify security descriptors for a service. My initial thought from other answers (and some reading) was that I should use ConvertStringSecurityDescriptorToSecurityDescriptor to setup my security descriptor.
Except...my install of VC++ 6.0 lacks the headers for this function (sddl.h according to MSDN).
Can anyone point me to other APIs for creating/modifying Security Descriptors? I'd be happy if I could walk through an existing one (I can QueryServiceObjectSecurity) and just eliminate certain users, but I can't figure out how to do that just looking at MSDN.
Alternately, if someone could point me in the direction of how to call this function without proper headers, that would be fine.
Obvious answer rebuttal: I can (and will) make an attempt to get IT to install a newer version of VC++ on my system, but the last time I asked IT about anything significant it took 7 weeks for them to respond. Since I'd like to get this done in the next week or two, I think IT is not going to fix this question for me in a timely manner.
In theory, you don't need a newer compiler, just an updated SDK. In reality, VC++ 6 is old enough that it may have trouble parsing the headers for a current SDK though.
As an alternative to that, you could declare pointers to the correct types of functions in your code, then use LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress to get the addresses of the correct functions, then call the functions via those pointers.
As an aside, however, I'd point out that I doubt what you've envisioned will work. I've never tried to do exactly what you're trying, so it's always possible I'm wrong, but every time I've done anything manipulating security descriptors, DACLs, SACLs, or anything similar in Windows, the code's ended up considerably longer and more complex than it initially seemed like it should. Even something extremely trivial generally requires at least a couple hundred lines of code...
You could check out the DCOMPerm sample, it has handles the DACL/ACE and other structures you are going to run into - thats where i started when i created a set of classes to handle this for our COM installations - and as #jerry coffin said it ended up being a lot of code.
You'll have to download the SDK to get the sample.
I'd like to start experimenting with Cocoa and programming for Mac OSX. I'm not terribly concerned with Objective C syntax/constructs/bheaviors at this point, but more curious as to an efficient setup on in terms of an editor and/or IDE that will get me going quickly. Is there any IDE even remotely similar to Visual Studio (since that's where I've spent most of my time over the last 7 years) in terms of it's solution/project concept? Any other tools, tips, suggestions and/or resources to get up and experimenting quickly?
I'd like to avoid a lot of the intro stuff and get into things like "If you want to create an Mac desktop application, you can use Acme IDE and set up your project like this."
I was afraid Xcode was going to be the answer! :P I tried playing around with that -- literally just getting it off the DVD and just diving in with no idea what to expect (before I even knew that you used Objective C as the language). I figured, the wise guy that I am, that I could just sort of fumble around and get a simple app working ... wrong.
#Andrew - Thanks for the insight on those config settings. Based on my Xcode first impression, I think those may help.
I'd suggest you pick a fun little product and dive in. If you're looking for a book I'd suggest Cocoa Programming for Max OSX which is a very good introduction both to Objective-C and Cocoa.
XCode is pretty much the de facto IDE and free with OSX. It should be on your original install DVD. It's good but not as good as Visual Studio (sorry, it's really not).
As a long-time VS user I found the default XCode config a little odd and hard to adjust to, particularly the way a new floating window would open for every sourcefile. Some tweaks I found particularly helpful;
Settings/General -> All-In-One (unifies editor/debugger window)
Settings/General -> Open counterparts in same editor (single-window edit)
Settings/Debugging - "In Editor Debugger Controls"
Settings/Debugging - "Auto Clear Debug Console"
Settings/Key-binding - lots of binding to match VS (Ctrl+F5/Shift+F5,Shift+Home, Shift+End etc)
I find the debugger has some annoying issues such as breakpoints not correctly mapping to lines and exceptions aren't immediately trapped by the debugger. Nothing deal-breaking but a bit cumbersome.
I would recommend that you make use of the new property syntax that was introduced for Objective-C 2.0. They make for a heck of a lot less typing in many many places. They're limited to OSX 10.5 only though (yeah, language features are tied to OS versions which is a bit odd).
Also don't be fooled into downplaying the differences between C/C++ and Objective-C. They're very much related but ARE different languages. Try and start Objective-C without thinking about how you'd do X,Y,Z in C/C++. It'll make it a lot easier.
The first document to read and digest is the Mem management guide, understand this before moving on. This is a great guide to objective-c too. Infact the developer site at Apple is very good - but you would probably want to read the Hillegas book first.
In regards to Xcode vs Visual Studio - they are different. I wouldn't say one is better than the other - Windows developers come over from VS and expect it to be the same. This is just an arrogant attitude and please don't fall into this crowd. Having used VS since the AppStudio days and Xcode for a year or so now, both have strengths and weaknesses. Xcode is something that out of the box (and especially when coming from VS) doesn't seem that good, but once you start using and understanding it - it becomes very powerful.
Also, there are a lot more tools included with Xcode et al, such as Instruments and Shark that you simply can't get with VS, unless you open your wallet, and even then IMHO aren't as good.
Anyway, good luck. I still enjoy C#, but Objective-C/Cocoa somehow makes programming fun again once you get into it...
Don't bother digging up your OSX DVD as they've released a new version (3.1) of XCode since then.
First, you'll want to join Apple Developer Connection (it's free, and you need it to access their version of MSDN) - it uses your Apple ID so if you've ever had one for the itunes store etc, it's that same username/password
Once you've done that, click on downloads, then click on developer tools, to view this page, and go for the XCode 3.1 Developer DVD
One other suggestion: If you have feature or enhancement requests, or bugs that you've run into, be sure to file them at Apple's Bug Reporter. It's the best way for developers to communicate their needs to Apple, because every issue is tracked through the system.
You might try the demo of textmate and see how you like it for working with objective-c or any other type of text really. It will import xcode project settings so you can still compile and run from textmate rather than having to go back to xcode.
Xcode is the standard for editing source files, though you can use another editor in conjunction with the command line xcodebuild tool if you really want. I used Vim for all my Cocoa editing before finally giving in to Xcode. It's not the greatest IDE in the world, but it gets the job done, and the recent 3.x releases have had some nice improvements.
The real power tool of Cocoa development is Interface Builder. IB does not generate source code like many UI tools. Instead it manipulates real Cocoa views, controls, and objects which it then bundles into an archive (nib) that is loaded by your program at runtime. Most Cocoa programs use at least one nib file, and often many more.
No matter what IDE/editor combination you choose for hacking on source files, I recommend using IB where you can. Even if you're not a fan of other UI layout/generation tools, I suggest keeping an open mind, giving "the Cocoa way" a chance and at least learning what Interface Builder can do for your development process.
AFAIK, pretty much every OS X developer uses Xcode.
That, and Interface Builder for creating the GUIs.
FWIW, try to get hold of a copy of Hillegas's book, as it's a great introductory tutorial, and the reference Docs Apple provides really aren't. (They are generally very good reference docs, however).
Cocoa is huge. The hardest part of learning how to write apps on Mac is learning Cocoa. By the way. You do not need to know ObjC (though it helps tons). You can write Cocoa apps with Python or Ruby (right in the IDE).
I agree VS is a better IDE then Xcode. But if you throw in Interface Builder and all the other tools, I'm not so sure. Mac development is not about 1 giant IDE for everything. But VS is "kinder" on the developer then Xcode is.
Also if you want to do cross platform apps look at RealBasic. A fine tool (Basic though. But it runs on Linux too.) You'd be surprised how many Mac apps are written with RB.
I've heard the books currently out there are pretty out of date. The whole ecosystem seems to evolve very fast with dramatic changes made in every OS release.
He wrote a tutorial which pulls together some Apple documentation and other tutorials which should get you started. I think it covers the basics of using the IDE, writing simple apps, and then goes on to more advanced stuff.
I've been dabbling in Cocoa for the past couple years, and recently picked up Fritz Anderson's "Xcode 3 Unleashed." Highly recommended for getting into Xcode — especially with some of the big changes 3.0/Leopard brought.
Don't forget Hillegass' defacto Cocoa bible, "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - Third Edition."
#peter I don't know why you had trouble with getting a simple app working, right off the bat without doing anything your app gets a lot of benefits from the Cocoa framework. If you mean you were trying to do stuff like connect a button to an action and have it print a alert on screen or something like that then yes I could see where your going with it being difficult.
The problem for me starting with Cocoa many years back is that it was so different from anything else that it had a little bit of a learning curve. Whereas many other systems are compile time oriented Cocoa is very dynamic and runtime oriented. Once you get past learning how actions hook up to classes it just becomes a matter of learning how the Cocoa frameworks work.