macOS Xcode woes - advise please! (Leopard/PPC)

[dodginess]

Hi,

My first post so thanks in advance

I recently bought a refurbished eMac which had Leopard 10.5.5 installed but no developer software and no discs. Because my Internet connection seems to consist of two tin cans connected by a bit of string I asked a friend of mine to head over to the Apple site and get me a copy of Xcode - I gave him a link for it but I can't tell which version I have.

The DMG file I got back opened properly and inside it were these three files:

dotmacsdk_2.0.dmg.part
gcc42preview1.dmg.part
xcode_3.0.dmg.part

Only the first one will mount and when I do that I get the software licence screen. When I click 'ok' it waits for a couple of seconds then I get this message:

Unable to attach "dotmacsdk_2.0.dmg.part". (codec overrun)

Before I try and diagnose this error I want to check with the knowledgeable folk here whether these files look right - the file sizes (respectively) are

5.6MB
50.2MB
1.16GB

but I would have expected at least one of them to have a .dmg extension.

Could anyone offer any advise please?

Thanks!

 

[jiminaus]

.part files are partial downloads. The latest XCode is xcode_3.2.5_and_ios_sdk_4.2_final.dmg and weighs in at 3.5 GB. This is the only file you need. You don't need a separate SDK or GCC download. XCode can be downloaded from developer.apple.com after registering for free.

 

[dodginess]

Thanks for responding.

I understand what you're saying, but this person would have only downloaded one file, not three (IE these three files were copied from a single .dmg file that mounted on their desktop). I've just checked my email and this was the file I asked them to download:

http://connect.apple.com/cgi-bin/We...eveloper_tools/xcode314_2809_developerdvd.dmg

I wasn't sure whether the '.part' extension indicated that they need to be joined in someway, not necessarily that they hadn't downloaded correctly - I know some applications add the '.part' extension in these circumstances.

Could you confirm one point for me:

The reason I wanted Xcode 3.1.4 was because I understood this was the last version that works on Leopard and G4 PPCs. Is this right? I have such a terrible Internet connection out here that there's no chance I can download anything else so I need to try and work out whether the files I have are good or not.

Thanks

 

[jiminaus]

Sorry you're right. XCode 3.2 and later only installs on Snow Leopard and therefore only on Intel Macs.

I'm downloading XCode 3.1.4 now, and I'll get back to you, if someone else doesn't do so first.

EDIT: I've just downloaded xcode314_2809_developerdvd.dmg (1.04 GB). When I mount it I get the following files:

• About Xcode Tools.pdf
• Packages/
• XcodeTools.mpkg

EDIT: .part files are created by Firefox while a download in progress. When the download completes the .part is removed. So do I think you have any partially downloaded DMGs. But additionally I don't what those DMGs actually are.

 

[kainjow]

.part files are from Firefox, so my guess is they didn't download all the way on your friend's computer.

I suppose jiminaus could post the file size of the completed download, then have your friend re-download them and not send them to you again until the file size matches

 

[jiminaus]

I suppose jiminaus could post the file size of the completed download, then have your friend re-download them and not send them to you again until the file size matches

The exact size is 1,041,278,004 bytes.

 

[dodginess]

Thank you both for your help - much appreciated.

Based on the details that jiminaus gave about the DVD image, I have no idea what files I have now

I've asked around and someone I know has a Leopard install disc that I can borrow - are the developer tools likely to be on it? Can I update it once it's installed?

Thanks!

 

[jiminaus]

I've asked around and someone I know has a Leopard install disc that I can borrow - are the developer tools likely to be on it?

If I remember correctly it's on the 2nd disc label Applications or something similar.

Can I update it once it's installed?

Xcode doesn't incrementally update. The DVD isn't going to get to closer to the latest 3.1.x version. You'd still need the full download. But at least it'll get you started I guess.

EDIT: I just had a hunch to where I much have the original Leopard DVDs that came with one of my Macs. And bingo there they were. I popped in the first DVD labelled "Mac OS X Install DVD" (Mac OS version 10.5.6 disc version 1.0 2X691-6230-A). Inside the Optional Installs folder is an Xcode Tools folder with XCode 3.1.2.

 

[dodginess]

Thanks again jiminaus - I'm going to be getting the disc in a couple of days so this might solve all my problems. I'm not particularly worried what version it is really, it's just that I've never had a copy of Xcode to work with before and I now have some free time to start looking at it.

For what it's worth, I'm interested in audio creation and arcade/console emulation and there seem to be quite a lot of Mac apps with source code available, so I figured this would be a good starting point. I have done some basic C development before (using a Philips set-top box and Linux cross-compiler) so I'm not totally clueless Or am I...?

Thanks!

 

[xStep]

While your at it, you might want your buddy to down load the combo update for 10.5.8. I believe that is the last version for Leopard.

 

[jiminaus]

For what it's worth, I'm interested in audio creation and arcade/console emulation and there seem to be quite a lot of Mac apps with source code available, so I figured this would be a good starting point. I have done some basic C development before (using a Philips set-top box and Linux cross-compiler) so I'm not totally clueless Or am I...?

It certainly doesn't sound like it!

I've never done any of audio creation or arcade/console emulation; nor embedded development for that matter. The closest I got the later is PalmOS development.

I often thought about looking into building a emulator. I've wanted to explore designing a computer architecture, without actually building the hardware, because I failed high-school physics and so did software engineering in college instead of electrical engineering .

If you want to start looking at an existing arcade emulator, the MAME project at http://mamedev.org/ might be good place to start.

 

[dodginess]

xStep - thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into that. The version I'm getting is 10.5.7 I think.

jiminaus - thanks also for your suggestion. In a previous life I looked at the MAME source once and lost the will to live...I might need to start with something a little easier - maybe one of those notepad-style applications, then work up from there I've actually been looking at the M1 Audio Player source as this includes some of the MAME drivers and the code needed to interpret PCM audio, etc. Although my set-top box programming efforts were rather modest I have written some Z80 programs and quite a lot of the arcade games had this as either the main CPU or sound chip. My main priority is to try and get something on screen or sent to the audio driver so I can see/hear that something's happening. I realise that none of this is particularly pioneering or hasn't already been done a thousand times but it's all relative I guess - the trick is probably to try and not feel intimidated by the immense talent that everybody else on the Internet seems to possess and yet somehow I don't

Veering off-topic for a moment, I think your move into software engineering was quite prescient because the focus seems to have shifted over to pure software implementations - I read in an electronics magazine a while ago that portable radios were being designed that will be able to re-configure themselves (purely in software) to receive FM broadcasts, shortwave or whatever signal you needed - essentially just a CPU with an antenna connection and the absolute minimum of hardware. On the electronics side I think FPGAs are a huge development and yet you never really hear much about them.

Thanks again for all your help - I look forward to posting some proper programming questions on this forum in the near future!