Rhapsody Developer Copyright 1997 by Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Rhapsody Developer Release Notes:
Project Builder

These notes are for the Project Builder application distributed with the Rhapsody Developer release. Project Builder provides integrated code development capabilities for the sophisticated developer. Its main window combines a project browser with a full-featured code editor. It offers separate panels for building and debugging projects, for finding information in the project, and for setting project, build, and file attributes. To familiarize yourself with Project Builder's capabilities and features, you can do one of the following.

• On Rhapsody for PowerPC and Rhapsody for Intel, choose the Help command from Project Builder's Help menu. This opens a HTML document that gets you started.
  
  
• On Yellow Box for Windows, choose the How To command from Project Builder's Help menu. This launches a Windows Help version of the on-line book Tools and Techniques (this book is still specific to NeXT's OPENSTEP 4.2 product and has not yet been updated for Rhapsody).
   

New Features for Rhapsody Developer

The following features are new since OPENSTEP Enterprise 4.2 (NeXT):

New Menu Layout

Project Builder complies with the Rhapsody User Experience guidelines; consequently, the menu layout is different from the way it was in OPENSTEP. The release notes for the Application Kit contain preliminary guidelines for menu layout.

HTML Documentation

The framework reference and some other documentation has been converted to standard HTML. To support this change, Project Builder now displays HTML documents and allows you browse documentation by clicking links. Choose Help from the Help menu to get an overview of this feature. Framework documentation files are still accessible from the Frameworks suitcase.

Loaded Files

The Loaded Files panel is now merged with the project browser. It appears to the right of the browser and has a different background color to make it stand out. There is a vertical split view between the browser and the loaded files scroll view. The default number of browser columns is now 3; you can change this default by entering the following in a Terminal shell:

defaults write Project Builder NumberOfBrowserColumns number_of_columns

Syntax Coloring

Instead of coloring unterminated strings to the end of file (as it did in previous versions), Project Builder stops coloring at the end of line. Syntax coloring is also faster.

Code Editor Dividers

Each editing view has a redesigned divider. The new divider now has identifying information on the left side and new controls on the right. The controls enable you to (left to right) compile single modules, swap header and implementation files into the editor, and split and close editing views.

For code editors (editing views in standalone windows) (see Editing in Separate Windows) the "split view" and "close view" controls are absent.

Documentation in Separate Views or Windows

You can now display documentation files in their own view or window. You control this behavior through the "Open Documentation Files in" section of the General display of the Preferences panel:

If Current View is selected, documentation files replace the current text. If Documentation View is selected, Project Builder creates (if necessary) and reuses a view reserved for documentation files (this may split your current view in two). If you select Documentation Window, Project Builder creates (if necessary) and reuses a window reserved for documentation files. In the last two cases a documentation file never replaces a source file and vice versa.

If you check "Open all files in separate windows," Project Builder creates a new window for each opened documentation file.

Editing in Separate Windows

A new editing mode puts all code editors in windows separate from the project's main window, which contains only the project browser and the loaded-files scroll view. The only way to reuse editing views in this mode is by using the header/implementation file-swapping function. To enable this mode check the "Open all files in separate windows" in the General display of the Preferences panel.

Automatically Saving Files Before Building

To have Project Builder automatically save edited files before you build a project, check the "Always save files when building" option in the Saving preferences display.

Combining Common Actions

Two new menu items in the Tools menu allow you to automatically combine commonly performed actions:

• Tools->Project Build -> Build & Run: Runs the current build target (as specified in the Launch panel options) after a successful build.
  
  
• Tools->Project Build -> Build & Debug: Debugs the current build target (as specified in the Launch panel options) after a successful build.
  

Compiler Switches

The Build Attributes display of the project inspector now allows you to choose compilers for Java and Objective-C++ projects. Alternative compilers, however, might not be available for this release.

External Debuggers and Editors

Support for external debuggers and editors has been removed until a more robust implementation is available.

Progress Indication

When Project Builder opens or creates a project, or when it loads large HTML files, it displays an attention panel with a progress indicator.

New Features for OPENSTEP 4.2 (NeXT)

Click-to-Find Button

A question-mark button has been added to the right of the toolbar on the main project window. Clicking this button activates context-help mode, a mode in which the cursor image changes to a question mark. In this mode, you can get information on items on the user interface by clicking them. You can also use this button for "Click-To-Find" operations to access symbols in the project's index. To get definitions for source code symbols, move the cursor over the source file and click when the symbol has been highlighted. This will bring up the Project Find panel to display the results.

Fuzzy Indexing

A new light-weight style of project indexing debuts in this release on OPENSTEP for both Mach and Windows. Fuzzy indexing generates a more reliable and economical index. Fuzzy parsing is not based on rhe strict preprocessing and formal parsing methodology employed in OPENSTEP 4.0 and OPENSTEP 4.1. In addition to using less virtual memory and CPU time, the fuzzy parsing system can index symbols inside #ifdefs that are not currently turned on in your builds.

With fuzzy indexing, information about frameworks is shared across projects that link against them and can be accessed from the Project Find panel. Information about other imported header files, however, is not currently stored. All existing preferences, Indexing panel operations, and Project Find queries are integrated with the fuzzy indexing feature.

Framework Documentation Access

You can browse the reference documentation associated with a framework in addition to using the Project Find panel to find specific descriptions. The Frameworks suitcase in the project browser shows, for each framework, documentation available on-line. On Mach, you can browse the documentation and display any file directly from the project browser. On Windows, the WinHelp system is used to display a selected documentation item.

Syntax Coloring

Project Builder can use syntax coloring when it displays source-code files of different languages (C, C++, Objective-C, Java). Syntax coloring shows the parts of source code (tokens) using different text attributes. For instance, comments can appear in italic text and string constants in red.

A Syntax Coloring display has been added to the Preferences panel. It permits you to turn the syntax coloring off or change the font and color for each lexical category of code.

The current set of lexical categories include Comments, Keywords, Strings and Numbers. You can also use the normal text attributes for a lexical category inherited from the existing Fonts, Sizes &Colors display of the Preferences panel. Tokens that don't appear in one of the lexical categories (for example, identifiers) always inherit these default attributes. Turning syntax coloring on and off takes place as soon as the Set button is clicked. Revert restores the previously-saved syntax-coloring preferences.

Improved Debugging

A number of bugs have been fixed in the Launcher/Debugger facilicities of Project Builder and new features have been introduced. These features include the ability to set the directory paths needed for dynamically loaded libraries and, on Windows, better integration between building and debugging executables. When you enter a path in the Environment section of the Launcher Options panel, the Launcher sets the environment variable necessary for launched and debugged programs to use dynamically loaded libraries located in the specified directory. When you build a project on Windows, the final link of the executable will fail if the executable is being run or debugged. Project Builder now asks if you want to stop a launched executable when building. If the executable is being debugged, Project Builder will notify gdb to release the executable and then reload its symbols when the build finishes. While the build is in progress, you cannot run the executable from within the debugger, but you can manipulate breakpoints.

Known Bugs

Reference	1671760
Problem	Project Builder erroneously warns of unsaved nib files.
Description	If you create a new nib file when you have a project nib file already opened, and then attempt to build the project, Project Builder asks if you want to save the nib file. Even if you respond "Yes" to this prompt, Project Builder asks you the same question on subsequent builds.
Workaround	Quit and relaunch Project Builder.

• If you want to build or modify a project in NextDeveloper/Examples, copy it first to /tmp or to a location in your home driectory.