Building Boost 1.38, Apache log4cxx 0.10.0, and GMP 4.2.4 on Mac OS X

These are excellent projects/libraries for C++ and can be freely downloaded. Please refer their license details for your specific need or use. Boost can be downloaded from http://www.boost.org/, Apache's log4cxx can be downloaded from http://logging.apache.org/log4cxx/download.html, and GNU's GMP can be downloaded from http://gmplib.org/#DOWNLOAD.

I started compiling these and installed towards compiling xmlbeansxx on Mac. It was very straight forward and the standard "./bootstrap", "./configure", "./make" and "./make install" did the trick.

I've used "--enable-cxx" for GMP so as to enable C++ support. This is needed since the default is "no" i.e. without C++ support.

I want to try xmlbeansxx when I get time. Lets see.

Building Xerces-C++ 3.0.1 on Mac OS X

Building Xerces-C++ 3.0.1 on Mac OS X was/is a breeze. Given below are the steps that I've followed.

1) Downloaded xerces-c++ 3.0.1 source from http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/download.cgi

2) Extracted the zip-file into a convenient folder (obvious :-))

3) Spent few minutes reading http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/build-3.html

4) Ran "./configure CFLAGS="-arch x86_64" CXXFLAGS="-arch x86_64" --prefix=/Path/To/My/ConvenientFolder/xercesInstall" from  "extracted folder" of "xerces"

5) Tried the SAX2Count example from "bin" of  /Path/To/My/ConvenientFolder/xercesInstall

I'll try to write some more tiny articles on creating/processing XML documents using xerces-c.

Using Ant to compile C programs on Mac

Ant is a powerful java based build tool that is an alternative for make, nmake and others. Here are the steps that I've followed to build C programs using "ant" on a Mac OS X system.

1. Downloaded "Ant 1.7" from http://ant.apache.org/ and extracted it into my home folder.

2. Downloaded "cpptasks" from http://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/cpptasks/ and extracted it under my home folder.

3. Updated the PATH, and set ANT_HOME environment variables like below

     $bash

    $export ANT_HOME= {path to ant folder} 

    $export PATH=$PATH:{path to ant folder}/bin

4. Ran "ant" from within to build/create "cpptasks.jar"

5. Copied "cpptasks.jar" from {path to cpptasks folder}/target/lib into {path to ant folder}/lib. Updated the CLASSPATH with this jar-file-name like below

$export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH://lib/cpptasks.jar

6. Created a simple C program in a path like

./src/main/c/Hello.c

7. Created a simple build.xml as given in http://ant-contrib.sourceforge.net/cpptasks/

8. Ran "ant" and it created the executable under "./target" as specified in the build.xml.

Hope this helps someone.

vim 7.2 on Mac

Compiling vim7.2 on Mac OS X was a cool experience. Here are the steps that I've followed.

1. Downloaded the MacVim from http://code.google.com/p/macvim.

2.  Installed "Xcode Tools" from "Optional Installs" of Mac OS X install DVD.

Note:

This step is necessary if GCC is not available. By default developer tools will not be installed. 

3. Extracted the vim source.

4. Used "./configure --enable-gui=macvim --prefix=/my/path".

5. Ran "xcodebuild".

6. Ran "open build/Release/MacVim.app".

7. Got the beautiful "vim".

8. Tried "tabnew" in the "colon prompt" and opened couple of files.

 

vim with tab

Like many of those who work with vim. I was also having so many vim windows or xterm windows with vi session in my workspace when I’ve to open handful of files. Well, not anymore after vim 7.0. Now I keep the files open in "tabs" :-).

After reading couple of articles on vim with tabs I tried compiling the 7.2 version of vim source and got some linking errors. It was some library path issue with GTK libraries. I decided to go for athena. So I tried "./configure --enable-gui=athena" and "make install" and it works like charm.

I really like that copy paste from one tab into another and so on. Well, I have no intensions of arguing whether some other editor(s) support these capabilities are not. I love to have these features in vim.

The following information from "/src/INSTALL" helped me. All credits to vim team.

These configure arguments can be used to select which GUI to use:
--enable-gui=gtk or: gtk2, motif, athena or auto
--disable-gtk-check
--disable-motif-check
--disable-athena-check

--enable-gui defaults to "auto", so it will automatically look for a GUI (in
the order of GTK, Motif, then Athena). If one is found, then is uses it and
does not proceed to check any of the remaining ones. Otherwise, it moves on
to the next one.

I've read (only) the vim tips from "http://www.linux.com/feature/59533". Happy vim’ing.

Running Windows 7 Beta from Mac OS X using Sun Microsystems' xVM

In fact though the title of this tiny article tells (or yells?) Windows 7 Beta on Mac. The procedure is kind of generic and can be used for any other supported guest OS' as well.

There are brilliant articles on this including the step-by-step kind of ones with screen-captures for example http://weblogs.java.net/blog/aditya_dada/archive/2009/02/using_suns_virt_1.html.

Actually if one knows the basics its a very simple and straight forward procedure. Here I'll try to capture the steps involved.

1. Download Sun Microsystems' virtual machine for the respective OS. In this case I tried for Mac.
2. Install the Virtual Machine on the host operating system. i.e. the OS that hosts the "guest" or other operating system. In this case Mac OS X is the host and Windows 7 Beta is the guest.
3. Download the beta/release of your guest OS if you've not done that before or keep the CD/DVD ready if you already have a licensed one. I presume and advise that you are going to use only legal software. If you choose any Open Source software then you are encouraged to do so.
4. Start the "Virtual Machine" application and walk through the installation steps of the "Virtual Machine Wizard" and voila you'll have guest OS installed and is available in an application window.

Try it. You'll love it. Hope you liked the sample captures on top left of this article :)

Notepad++ nice options; Searching for more information on specific text

As shown in the screen-capture. There are some nice options under the "Run" top-level menu of Notepad++, to search for a "selected text" or the "current word" in Google/Wikipedia etc.,

If there is a file-name in the current text like c:\SomePath\blah.txt just by selecting the full-path and hitting Alt+F5 we can open the file in Notepad++.

Notepad++

I wanted an editor that is very easy to use, feature-rich and with a short learning curve. I wanted the focus to be on the actual work rather than learning how to do it on a specific word-processing application (not quite possible always). My friend was already using this application then and recommended me. Ever from that day, whatever be the Windows box I get to work with, I wanted Notepad++ on it before I start. It has also become the first of my articles about technology stuff.

It has everything that a developer would need. The plug-ins are increasing and are simply amazing. It is open source and is available under GNU GPL version 2 (or later). You can start the fun by downloading it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/

I saw some interesting variants like "Notepad++ Portable Edition", "Notepad Scratchpad", "Secured Notepad++", and "Notepad X". I'll try to write about some cool features in this editor with some examples.