Kdevelop on Mac OS X
Even though I like a lot of Mac OS X application I just can’t work with X Code as an IDE. I am just got to used to kdevelop. Kdevelop is an integrated development environement for several programming and of course scripting language.
Therefore I tried to two diffrent ways to get kdevelop up and running on os x. If you're just looking for the working way, go to part 2.
OS X native kde applications
My first approach was getting a native version of kdevelop for OS X. This is possible, because since KDE version 4 one of KDE's goals is to get KDE ruunning on operating systems without X11. This means that KDE/KDE Applications will run on windows or mac os x natively one day.
You can either get binarys by compling KDE 4.1 by yourself which will be a pain in the butt or you can use prebuild packages which are provided by mac.kde.org.
Currently (07.08.2008), they got only binary packages for KDE 4.1 Beta. And the installation is a little bit tricky. So first of all a few hints of how to get kdevelop installed and running, because the instructions on their site are not complety. But before you install these package read the rest of the article first!
The first error is in the requirements listing of kdevelop. You will not only need kdelibs, kdeprereqs, kdesupport, kdevplatform, qt (SVN trunk), but also kdebase-runtime. Then you need to patch all kde*.pkg files with this command:
chmod a+x *.pkg/Contents/Resources/postflight
Then you need to patch kdebase-runtime.pkg. You need to change in the kdebase-runtime.pkg/Contents/Info.plist file from
<key>IFPkgFlagAuthorizationAction</key>
<string>NoAuthorization</string>
to
<key>IFPkgFlagAuthorizationAction</key>
<string>AdminAuthorization</string>
After all the trouble getting kdevelop to run natively on Mac OS X I gave the fink rpoject a try. MacPorts wasn't an option at all, because they do not have kdevelop in their repositories. The advantage of the fink project is that they supply bnary packages. This will save you a lot of time compared to compile this monster (kdevelop with all it's kde dependencies).
Therefore I've donwloaded the install dmg. The installation was as simple as any Mac OS X pkg installation, but I recommand to read the README before you start up ;)
After that you got the powerful apt-get Programm which I know really well from my time with debain and min linux. So here a few lines of instructions:
- Search: apt-cache search PROGRAM_NAME
- Update: apt-get update This will only update the information for apt-cache and apt-get commans, but it doesn't update any installed programms or packages. So after an update you have to use: apt-get upgrade This will update your installed programms and packages.
- InstaLL: After you figured out the package name of your favorite programm just type: apt-get install NAME
So it is simple as that.
To get kdevelop isntalled from the binary repositories you've just to type:
apt-get install kdevelop
So know you can start using kdevelop by just typing:
kdevelop
in a Terminal. If you want to start kdevelop out of the iconbar, you need to create an Icon with Platypus.
Using this option to install kdevelop (version 3.5.x) I've expierenced no crahes at all. The integration isn't that nice, but still very useful. here an screenshot of kdevelop running in x11 on leporad:
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I really enjoy working with kdevelop under OS X and after some time getting used to X11/XQuartz I really do not notice the defference between kdevelop in x11 and the native port so far. Therefore I recommand kdevelop installed by fink to anyone who wants to use it on OS X.