Felipe, You should be able to create an app bundle for Lazarus, even with its dependence on needing X11 already running. See http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/OS_X_Programming_Tips. I had this working at one time.
Note that you'll probably want to go a step further and try putting all of the Lazarus source and other files inside the bundle folder. That way you'll be able to drag and drop Lazarus anywhere you want on your computer. An app bundle is what's known as an "opaque" directory in that it appears to the user in Finder as a single file, without its ".app" extension. However, it's really just a normal folder. It's important to remember that when constructing your app bundle, you're also readying it for distribution. For example, you can drag and drop the app bundle anywhere you want or copy it to another computer. Or you can turn it into an installer package (.pkg) with PackageMaker. This is a different approach from, say, Windows, where you build your application and then use a separate program (e.g., Inno Setup) to select all the various files, often from diffeent locations on your computer, that need to be rolled into the installer, and also specify where all these files will be installed on the target computer. With OS X, you're both building the app and creating the final installation footprint at the same time. Really a lot more logical way of doing things. I think that moving to an app bundle for the IDE really should wait for a Carbon-based IDE. That would eliminate the need for X11 or GTK to be installed and would make Lazarus a true Mac app that's easy to install (I suspect most newcomers to Lazarus on OS X just give up when they see how complicated the installation is). Once a Carbon-based IDE is available I doubt if any Mac user of Lazarus would ever install GTK, except perhaps out of curiosity. Also, since you have an Intel Mac, you should be able to install and run the PowerPC version of FPC and Lazarus too and create PowerPC executables without cross-compiling. One issue would be figuring out how to install two versions of FPC since these file locations are kind of hardwired right now. Perhaps FPC could be put in an app bundle too or made more relocatable than it is now. If you're able to compile PowerPC executables maybe you could look into creating a "universal binary" app bundle that contains both the Intel and PowerPC executables and compiled units. If that's possible then Lazarus could theoretically be distributed as a universal binary instead of separate versions for Intel and PowerPC. Thanks. -Phil -----Original Message----- From: Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 5:27 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [lazarus] App bundle and icons for x11 apps on macintosh Hi, I just installed open office on macintosh. It requires X11 to run, but it is as easy to install (just drag the folder from the dmg), to run (can be put on the docker) and uninstall as any good aqua application. That's really very interresting, because if Open Office can do it, we could do the same for Lazarus =) Yes, of course we still need fink and gtk, but with each improvement things can easier =) I will try to look at this when I have free time ... bye, -- Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho _________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives _________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
