ConvertMake: The Project Builder Project Generator
May 29, 2006. On this Memorial Day after over 4 years since its inception, I am pleased to announce the GPL Version of ConvertMake! The project had all but died when I was contacted several months ago by Roberto Perez at Increw. He offered to take over maintain ConvertMake going forward which I couldn't refuse given that I haven't updated the code or website in over 2 years ;-). They have already done a great job setting up a wiki, SVN repository, and support/feedback forum. Also, they have kicked things off with a universal binary with preliminary Xcode support! Thanks Increw! So please check out the new site to try out the new version and participate in this open source project! http://convertmake.increw.org
About
ConvertMake is a developer tool for Mac OS X that features the ability to convert command line build systems into Apple's Project Builder IDE project format. If you've been avoiding Project Builder from the annoyance of converting your makefiles or the hassle of maintaining separate build systems, this is the tool you've been waiting for.
Background
Many UNIX-based applications ported to Mac OS X use the command line interface (CLI) to edit source code, compile, and debug applications. At the same time, many Mac programmers are more comfortable and experienced with integrated development environments (IDE's) - applications that combine the editor, compiler, and debugger in a single convenient interface. Because there was no easy way to bring a CLI environment into an IDE, developers have been forced to either embrace the CLI environment or invest serious time and energy manually creating IDE project files. ConvertMake provides an attractive alternative, featuring the ability to automatically convert CLI build systems into Project Builder projects, thus greatly reducing the time spent creating and maintaining project files.
Key Features
- Works with any build system that uses the GNU toolset (note: Java is currently unsupported)
- Full import of all build settings and dependencies
- Support for common operations, including conversion of tools to application bundles, and dynamic libraries to framework bundles
- Powerful features to customize static library import
- Multiple source tree support - construct a project from multiple command line build systems
- Flexible project manipulation: add to existing projects or create brand new ones
- Complete manual with example conversions and details of the conversion process
Copyright 2003 Darrell Walisser. Last update: May 29, 2006
