[KDE/Mac] Getting started on Mac OS X

[Ian Wadham]

Hi Jeremy,

On 06/01/2015, at 8:02 AM, Jeremy Whiting wrote:
> As I'm a bit of a noob on OS X I thought I'd ask a few questions to get my head around how things typically work on this platform.

Actually we are all noobs here, in one area or another… :-)  But we muddle along...

> 1. What is an OS X Framework? I probably should google and see what I can find, but thought I'd ask here too.

Yes, you should have googled… :-)  Google "Apple OS X xxxxx" for stuff you want to
know about xxxxx on Apple, but beware, the doco can be voluminous… :-)  So can
the geeky mailing lists.  But for now:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFrameworks/Frameworks.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000183-SW1
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFrameworks/Concepts/WhatAreFrameworks.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20002303-BBCEIJFI

BTW Xcode, Apple's IDE, has quite a good facility for searching and browsing
Apple developers' documentation and is a pre-requisite for MacPorts (not for
the IDE, but for the system software that comes with Xcode).

Also, on MacPorts, Qt-Mac 4 (port qt4-mac) is installed as an Apple Framework
with symlinks into it from the usual Unixy places like /opt/local/lib.  If you have
MacPorts and the qt4-mac port installed, you can see some examples of the
structure and contents in /opt/local/lib and /opt/local/Library/Frameworks.

> If it's akin to a shared library on linux why aren't they used more often?

Dunno.  But a Framework is more than just a shared library and does not
actually have to include a library or any code… :-)

> 2. Are there any licensing issues to keep in mind regarding Qt on this platform? Is the L(GPL) version of Qt usable both when dynamically and statically linking or only one or the other (I am not trying to spread fud here, I honestly don't know)?

The MacPorts port developers take care of such issues for us… :-) … and they
do a wonderful job!

> 3. How does one typically build Qt on this platform? When I do it here with qt5 cloned from kde:qt5 using branch 5.4 and a separate qt5build folder where I run ../qt5/configure -qpa cocoa and such the resulting output doesn't show Cocoa as a QPA it is building. Also it doesn't seem to build (nor does configure --help show any options to enable) QtScript to build, which is required for some frameworks.

Dunno again, but please be aware that Qt exists as Qt-Mac on this platform.
That means there is a lot of Objective C code in it and even files that have
intermixed Objective C and C++ (called Objective C++ on Apple OS X) See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective-C#Objective-C.2B.2B

That special code is what references Cocoa.

BTW, there is already a port of qt5-mac 5.3.2 on MacPorts, but we cannot install
it concurrently with Qt 4.  René is working on that problem.

> I guess that's all for now.

On this list we have Nicolas Pavillon, current developer of KDE 4 ports, and
Bradley Giesebricht, former developer of KDE 4 ports.  You can meet them
again, together with other MacPorts developers (e.g. for Qt-Mac ports) on the
MacPorts Users list.  If/when you have highly technical questions, you can
also go to the MacPorts Developers list or post MacPorts tickets.  See:

https://trac.macports.org/wiki   https://trac.macports.org/wiki/MailingLists

Strictly speaking, questions about Mac OS X are off-topic there, but the
guys have an immense fund of Apple and UNIX knowledge and I have
found they are very helpful if you have made an effort to answer the
question yourself and you say why you are asking.

Hope this helps,
Ian W.