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Beginners > Mac OS X

#36838 - jstart - Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:25 am

I just started looking into gba programming and I am really interested. But so far alll the gba compilers ive found are windows only and i dont know hwo to use the mac os x devkit
Can i just use xtools or project builder

#36857 - sandymac - Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:56 pm

I'd say the easiest way to do some dev work on Mac OS X with Xcode is to get a GBA SDK from: http://gnufoo.org/gbasdk/gbasdk.html

Once you've installed that package, go to /Developer/ProjectBuilder Extras/Project Templates/ and move the GBASDK folder to /Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Project Templates/

Once you've done that, start Xcode and there will be GBA project templates to start with. The template will contain basic hello world code to make sure you can compile it.

The gnuFoo GBASDK doesn't include the newest GCC or GBA linker scripts but it's more than enough to get you going. Actually if you look around enough it isn't hard to replace the linker scripts in the project template folders with current versions.
_________________
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." -- Thomas Paine

#36871 - crossraleigh - Wed Mar 02, 2005 6:41 pm

GBASDK uses DevKitAdvance; devkitARM is preferred nowadays. Download it at the Project Filelist. The build scripts worked fine on my machine (10.3.5), but OS X binaries also recently became available.

#37312 - ohmushells - Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:50 am

what i really want to have on mac os x, are usable tools!

i need mapeditors, and graphics converters

anybode has any as compilable source or binary

darkfaders wav2gba i have managed to compile myself, but gfx2gba and pcx2sprite i havent found the source for.. and as for map/tile-editors i dont even know where to look :(


so; anybody has tools compiled for os x to share? dont worry about the dev-enviroment, that part i have covered =)

#37342 - poslundc - Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:53 pm

If you are coding on Mac OS, you will pretty much have to write your own tools. Sorry.

If you are really serious about coding for the GBA then you should probably consider investing in a cheapo Windows box anyway, if for no other reason than the debugging capabilities you get built-into the Win version of VBA.

I have a 500 MHz P3 laptop I purchased used for very little, and I keep it networked with my Mac. I do all of the main coding and testing on my Mac, but I also run Windows filesharing and SSL on it, so whenever I want to do some heavy debugging I can edit the code remotely on my Windows machine, and even invoke the compiler remotely through SSH.

Of course, if you're really serious about coding for the GBA, then you'll find yourself having to code your own tools sooner or later anyway.

Dan.

#38878 - musicman3320 - Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:39 pm

Actually, there are some pretty good tools out there for mac, but you do have to look high and low for them. If you have Adobe Photoshop, then there is a nice free GBA plugin that you can get that will allow you to export any image in photoshop to a GBA C header file, or to a GBA .bin file. It is available here:

http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/

I find this to be very easy to use, especially because you don't even have to deal with the command line when converting images.

Happy drawing,

-Chris[/url]