Do you have to pay just to develop for Mac OS X?!

[cybersmyth]

I have a small, free app I've developed and had some people ask me if it I could port it to Mac OS X. I have never developed in Mac OS X, but assumed with Lazarus and Free Pascal being open and cross platform, it would be worthwhile to give it a shot. So I try to get everything installed and run into something called Xcode that you have to pay for just to get the privilege of compiling on Mac OS X? Am I wrong about this? I hope I'm just missing something. I can't imagine what would happen if Microsoft required you to purchase something just to compile in Windows.

[Phil]

You have Xcode on you OS X DVD. Just install the developer tools that are need with FPC from the DVD.

Thanks.

-Phil

[felipemdc]

Free Pascal needs the assembler and linker which are distributed in the developers tools which come in the Mac OS X DVDs. Those are free. I'm not sure exactly which part is paid, but certainly nothing required by Free Pascal.

[Arbee]

XCode - up to version 3.2 - used to be free and - as Phil said - available on the OS X install DVD.

Recently Apple released XCode 4.0 via their Appstore and they now ask money for it.  Not much - some $5 or so - but still ....

[Phil]

To submit to the iOS App Store or Mac App Store, you need to be in one of Apple's developer programs. Xcode 3.2.6 and Xcode 4.0.2 (latest of both) are then available for download free.

If you're not in a developer program (i.e., no plans to utilize an App Store), you can get Xcode 4 via the Mac App Store for US$4.95. Xcode 4 is a very large download (> 4 GB), so maybe Apple decided to defray the costs of hosting and providing the bandwidth for this - you would need to ask them.

Previously you could just register and download Xcode for free. I don't know if you can still do that for the latest versions of Xcode - please report back what you find out.

The benefit of Xcode 4 is that it's a much improved IDE, now with an integrated designer (Interface Builder) - more like all other IDE's, that is.

Here's the first two parts of a series on using Xcode 4 to develop for OS X with Cocoa using Free Pascal's Objective Pascal extensions:

http://web.me.com/macpgmr/ObjP/Xcode4/ObjP_Part1.html

http://web.me.com/macpgmr/ObjP/Xcode4/ObjP_Part2.html

Eventually I'll cover iOS development with Xcode 4 and Objective Pascal too.

Thanks.

-Phil

[felipemdc]

XCode - up to version 3.2 - used to be free and - as Phil said - available on the OS X install DVD.

Recently Apple released XCode 4.0 via their Appstore and they now ask money for it.  Not much - some $5 or so - but still ....

That's only for people that want to upgrade from Xcode 3.2 to Xcode 4. That's not necessary for using Free Pascal. The old version works just fine.

I suppose they will ship developers tools for free together with Mac OS X 10.7 as usual. If they don't, it doesn't matter, we can just package the binutils together with FPC then, because they are free software.

[Phil]

I have a small, free app I've developed and had some people ask me if it I could port it to Mac OS X. I have never developed in Mac OS X...

I would suggest that you look into the Mac developer program. Then you could submit your app to the Mac App Store. The app can be free - Apple picks up the cost of hosting your app.

Then you app will be in front of millions of Mac users. And if you decide to charge for your app, remember that these millions of users all have credit cards.

Since you've never developed for OS X before, you should also look at this article so you can avoid submitting an app with a Windows-looking UI.

http://web.me.com/macpgmr/ObjP/MacXPlatform_Part8.html

Note that if you develop with Cocoa in Xcode 4, most of the manual things described in the article are done for you automatically.

Thanks.

-Phil

[Fred vS]

@Phil

I would suggest that you look into the Mac developer program. Then you could submit your app to the Mac App Store. The app can be free - Apple picks up the cost of hosting your app.

.

Thank you Phil.
Hum, Apple seems , for us, foreigner from Linux and Win, very difficult to approach.

Do you think it is possible to give a free mac application done with Lazarus to Mac App Store ?

And how ?

Apple picks up the cost of hosting your app

.

Whaouw, so generous 

Many thanks

[cybersmyth]

Thanks a lot of the info, guys! I'll have to hunt that down, I'm running a virtual Mac OS X on Win 7 from a install disk a friend gave me and I no longer have the disk.

Cool info about the apps, but no way I could ever make any money off it. My user base is too small. The app is a network rendering manager for LightWave 3D, so the market would be 3D artists who use LightWave and have need of and the expertise to build a render farm.

[Phil]

@Phil
Hum, Apple seems , for us, foreigner from Linux and Win, very difficult to approach.

Do you think it is possible to give a free mac application done with Lazarus to Mac App Store ?

And how ?

Yes, I'm aware of several Pascal apps, all Carbon (not Cocoa), that have been accepted into the Mac App Store. Two were done with Lazarus so that's definitely an option as long as an app meets the App Store requirements - see link in Part 8 article.

Not sure what you mean by "difficult". Apple wants the apps that their millions of customers see to be top notch, even if they're free. These apps are also code signed, etc. - this helps protect you from being ripped off and your users from malware.

Everyone else is copying the Apple App Store, even trying to call them "App Store", so obviously the idea is working.

If you're old enough to remember the "good" old days of software publishing, if you were lucky enough to find a publisher for your app (listed in publisher's catalog, etc.), you were also lucky if go 10-20% of the purchase price. With Apple's stores, you keep 70%. For the 30% that Apple keeps, everything else, currency conversion, credit card billing, etc. is handled for you automatically so you can concentrate on writing good software rather than on running a business.

Ryan over on the Mac Pascal mailing list has some scripts for doing the code signing, app submission, etc. manually and outside of Xcode. If you're interested, you might want to sign up for the Mac Pascal mailing list. He also has an app in the Mac App Store and could probably answer specific questions.

http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/mac-pascal

Thanks.

-Phil

[Fred vS]

Many thanks Phil 

[marcov]

Everyone else is copying the Apple App Store, even trying to call them "App Store", so obviously the idea is working.

People that think that popular and working are the same thing, are encouraged to stock up on Tulips
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania)

[Phil]

Everyone else is copying the Apple App Store, even trying to call them "App Store", so obviously the idea is working.

People that think that popular and working are the same thing, are encouraged to stock up on Tulips

Right. It's not clear that the other "App Stores" will work out.

Thanks.

-Phil