Getting Started

Here are five steps to using this SDK:

Step 1: Download and Install Xcode

The example Xcode projects require Xcode 2.2.1 or later. Xcode 2.2 requires OS 10.4. So if you are not using 10.4, you cannot develop Max externals using this SDK. Version 4.6 of Max/MSP may itself run on Mac OS X version 10.3.9, but the development environment will not. (Note: before you complain, consider that the cost of OS 10.4 is far less than the cost of Code Warrior, and there are probably other benefits to using OS X 10.4.)

To obtain Xcode 2.2.1, use your Apple Developer Connection account to access the download page. If you do not have an ADC account, set up one for free at http://developer.apple.com.

Step 2: Copy the SDK and examine the folder structure

If you have not done so already, copy the MaxMSP UB SDK folder to your hard drive. The example projects inside are set up to use the folder structure of the SDK.

• SDK folder
  • c74support -- contains necessary include files
  • example-externs -- a folder containing folders with individual extern projects and source code
    • maximum -- an extern project / source folder
    • plus~ -- another extern project / source folder

For best results, we suggest you retain this structure and copy folders containing projects and source you want to port to Xcode into the SDK folder. Xcode is not necessarily as flexible with its search path as Code Warrior. However, note that we supply a technique for eliminating the dependence on this folder structure below in the Frameworks section.

Rename the "example-externs" folder something like "my-externs" if you want.

Step 3: Copy the Frameworks

Copy the contents of the SDK's CopyContentsToLibraryFrameworks folder in the SDK to /Library/Frameworks. Unless you have specific reasons for doing so, do not copy the MaxAPI.framework and MaxAudioAPI.framework folders anywhere else. The SDK projects are set up to want to see them in /Library/Frameworks.

Step 4: Build the Examples

Now you are ready to see if you can get the example projects to build. Start with maximum. Double-click on maximum.xcodeproj. You should see the project window appear in Xcode. Click on the Build icon. If successful, the objects will be built into the build directory of the project folders. The build directory will be created by Xcode when you first open the project.

The Xcode build directory for the example projects has three subfolders: Development, Deployment, and .build. Temporary stuff is put into the .build folder. The built object will be in either Development or Deployment, depending on the build configuration you choose. We'll explain more about build configurations in a moment.

Some possible errors you might see:

error: ext.h: No such file or directory

This indicates you've changed the folder structure of the SDK before attempting to build.

can't locate framework for: -framework MaxAPI

This error almost always indicates you didn't copy the MaxAPI.framework and MaxAudioAPI.framework folder to /Library/Frameworks. There is one other possible error if you did in fact copy the frameworks to the proper location.

The Max/MSP extern projects use the Max OS X 10.4 Universal SDK, because it is required in order to compile universal binaries on a PowerPC machine. If for some reason, you have placed a Frameworks folder in this SDK folder, Xcode will get upset and ignore the Max frameworks in /Library/Frameworks. In order to fix this, you will need copy the Max frameworks into the Frameworks folder you created in the SDK folder. Note that you may need admin permissions to do this. If you do not really need a Frameworks folder in the SDK folder, then delete it and this error will go away.

Another possible error is related to the required framework version (1) not being found. In this case it is likely you forgot to copy the frameworks in the SDK, but you have the ones from Max 4.5 sitting around. There are is a good reason not to use the 4.5 frameworks for development, discussed in the More About Frameworks section below. In any case, it's good to know that the 4.6 frameworks will still work with Max 4.5 to load your Mach-O external objects, so there's no good reason not to replace the older ones.

Step 5: Start converting your projects

Once you have the projects building, you can start to convert your own projects, or develop new ones. The best way to do this is to copy the examples and modify them. There are many tricky settings in these Xcode projects and you will probably do better if you don't start from scratch trying to create them.

Next: Anatomy of Mach-O Max Externals

Return to the Universal Binary SDK Table of Contents

-- DavidZicarelli - 04 Apr 2006
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