Inside Macintosh: Programmer's Guide to MacApp / Part 2 - Working With MacApp

Appendix A - Working With the MacApp Build System

Building a MacApp Application

You invoke MacApp's MABuild system from within the MPW programming environment. The build system creates an application through the interaction of various tools, definition files, MPW scripts, and MPW shell variables. MABuild itself is an MPW script that executes other MPW tools and scripts.

In the simplest case, you just run the MPW Shell program, type the following line in the MPW worksheet window, and press the Enter key. Type

MABuild YourApp

where YourApp is the name of your application. MABuild compiles and links your code into an executable application file, rebuilding only those files that have been modified since the last build.

For larger or more complicated applications, you can use the MABuild system to specify virtually any combination of compile-time options, file interdependencies, output filenames, and a host of other attributes.

This appendix discusses the basics of building MacApp applications. For a more complete description of options available for the linker, compiler, librarian, or other tool you use, refer to the manual for the specific tool. Familiarity with MPW's Make command is also helpful.

You can also run MABuild from Symantec C++ for Power Macintosh or Metrowerks CodeWarrior using ToolServer. See the MacApp Release Notes for details.