await/async. The latest Acorn has a poor man type of plugin architecture that can be used to extend the parser. But it is very dependent of the internal workings so not very good at extending more complex things like we do with the Objective-J language. It is also hard if not impossible to extend the Tokenizer with that plugin architecture. The Tokenizer is modified in our version to implementation our preprocessor. It is not built like a regular preprocessor that "preprocess" the file and creates a new file that is then compiled. It is implemented as a Recursive Token Transformer. It will transform tokens on the fly to the "preprocessed" result. This allow it to be very fast and only do one scan over the source file when compiling.
tests.js at https://github.com/mrcarlberg/acorn. Should be nice if we could get your problem as a test case too.
For more info check: https://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/actions
@mrcarlberg afaik we can build and test XcodeCapp using github actions too. I began looking at this several months ago. From what I saw, the oldest support OS is High Sierra.
Does limiting XcodeCapp support to macOS 10.13 to fit Github’s CI pipeline cause problems for us?
XcodeCloud is available now too, but that is tied to individual Apple IDs - Github Actions seems the better choice.
I continue picking away at the problems in XcodeCapp as time permits and will set up CI actions for it.
@import / and #import statements because Objective-J so far as I know does not really understand #import. Technically—Objective-J should never see my #import statements because these are hidden behind an #if statement
@mrcarlberg This question is probaby for you (but anyone with large app experience should chime in)…
Our main app is best approached as a plugin host, with something like 1 1/2 dozen modules which a user can activate. They all have content displayed in the host app, in a defined subview.
Until now, all the modules have lived in a Modules bundle in the main app, each with their own sub-bundle. This works, but it is a subtle invitation for unwanted coupling.
Moving the plugin bundles to the Frameworks folder is more elegant, but they are under active development, including xibs. XcodeCapp won’t see resources in those bundles to recompile (especially xibs). Adding the Framework bundles as separate Xcode projects runs into temporary path permission problems with nib2cib.
It looks as though the only proper way to do this is to move the bundles to their own projects and git repositories.
Thoughts on best practices for large scale development and modularity?
A Framework is a Bundle so I guess your modules are just a plain Frameworks. Looks very straightforward to me.
To have each as a separate Xcode project looks also very simple. Is your setup that gives you path permission problems the thing you need to look at? It feels like this is coming back to you all the time?
Our project has a very simple setup with one main application with about 35 xib files. To this we have a number of Frameworks and a Theme. We never use XcodeCapp because it overwrites the project file all the time. We run
nib2cib and/or objj2objcskeleton manually or with a simple bash script.
The OS setup is absolutely standard (Monterey hardly allows anything else). XcodeCapp appears to have been designed with the intent all xibs are stored in the main bundle’s Resources folder and doesn’t seem to behave well if not. Keeping xib resources separate from their associated code resources is increasingly a problem for managing the app, as it grows. Using folders in the Xcode sidebar as logical groups is one answer to that, but, as you point out, XcodeCapp is ill-behaved wrt Xcode project files (in some circumstances). That can, should, and will be fixed, but this app has also grown beyond the point where a monolithic project structure is appropriate. It is also just a nuissance to keep one or more terminal windows open to watch and compile nibs. And also to create Objective-C matching class definitions. And Xcode doesn’t have an integrated terminal capability.
Packaging as frameworks, in the Frameworks folder, seems the best approach. At the moment, the modules are under active development - for refactoring. I’m also somewhat concerned about managing imports in the frameworks scenario - there are currently cross-dependencies, and it’s not yet obvious how those will be sorted out.
An allied problem is that I insist on far more separation of concerns into individual files than most people probably do, with smaller controllers for many, if not most, individual sub-views. That’s before getting to datasources and delegates. It’s reached the point these really should be packaged directly with their associated xib assets. Some will suggest avoiding xibs altogether - my experience is it’s very difficult to get a visually polished result going that route.
Simpling moving the module bundles into the Frameworks folder has resulted in jake build problems though. It looks to me as though, as frameworks, they need to be kept entirely out of the main app, built separately, and the build artifacts symlinked or copied in. I assume the reason XcodeCapp allows adding multiple projects which are actively watched is to accommodate just such an approach. I was hoping someone might actually have experience with such, but it seems not.
For the moment, staying with the monolithic project structure is workable. A single module is currently being factored out into a separate app, and that can be used as a base to work back upwards in complexity.
One thing I’ve noticed is the monolithic on-disk structure of this app has negatively influenced coupling of the constituent parts - it’s more rigid than need be.
It’s probably time to revisit Nuage’s project structure - it’s of the scale I envisage this app soon reaching and perhaps it offers some guidance.
Info.plist file. This allows a deep structured project to be compiled in the browser.Another way to get structure in a project is to use group folders in Xcode. We use that a lot in our project. This makes it easy to find stuff that are related. Se attached screenshot.
@mrcarlberg I had come to the same conclusions over the last few years. The best approach available now has been to use Xcode’s sidebar groups to provide useful organization. It works, but one must be careful to not select ‘Group with folder’. I had noticed #2963 when it was posted, but failed to grasp its significance. fwiw, there has long been a Ruby gem to synchronize Xcode’s virtual folder with the on-disk structure: https://github.com/venmo/synx
An analagous automated tool would nicely complement #2963
Anyone able to describe in detail how an app built for release bootstraps itself? I’m in the process of hardening ours, starting with prohibiting everything, then specifically allowing the pathnames required by the app.
Strangely, one of the first URL requests is for main.j, which isn’t a file in the Release build artifacts, despite having a reference in index.html. Having trouble understanding where the request for main.j originates - although I’m guessing it’s a fallback built into the Objective-J runtime file.
Insight welcomed. It will also help in process of defining the offline operation requirements.
- index.html is read and parsed by the browser
- The file
Frameworks/Objective-J/Objective-J.jsis read and executed. It will setup the Objective-J runtime. - The file
./Info.plistis read and parsed to get stuff like path to main file (usuallymain.j), is it prebuilt etc... - The main file is read.
- The file is parsed to create an AST tree of the code by the Objective-J compiler if not yet compiled. If it is pre built each source file in the bundle is stored together precompiled in one file. Each file will then be extracted from the common file instead of loaded separately. For example
Frameworks/Foundation.sjetc. - If the file does any
@importthen read each of the imported files. - For each imported file continue on step 5 and building a dependent tree of all source files.
- When the last files without any imports are read and if needed parsed by the Objective-J compiler. Usually
Foundation/CPObject.jand some other similar classes. The load system now starts execute each source file from the leafs of the recursive tree that is built when loading all the imported files above. If the source files are not pre built the compiler will generate the compiled javascript code from the previously generated AST tree before executing it. - The dependency tree is walked back down to the main file.
- When the main file is executed as the last file the load system will check if there exists a
mainfunction. The function is called.
In depths header from the main wiki page :smile: : https://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/wiki/Bootstraphttps://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/wiki
Build/AppName.build is, as you say, used in the build process. It stores all the compiled source files before the common source file is being created. It is not removed after the build process as it is also used the next time you build to only recompile the files that are changed. You can remove it by doing jake clean or just remove from command line with rm or from the FInder.
@mrcarlberg Do you know if the Jakefile syntax is sufficiently close to that of a Makefile for a make linter to be usable?
I’ve just had a modification to the standard Jakefile in a project which unintentionally introduced invalid characters. Running jake produced very unhelpful feedback — it complained the problem was in the Cappuccino’s narwhal bootstrap.js file :-(
Perhaps I hadn’t had my morning coffee, but it took an hour for the eureka moment when I realized the problem was in the Jakefile itself.
gtavares@Gustavos-MacBook-Air Browser % ./gtktest
/Users/gtavares/Developer/cappuccino/node_modules/@objj/runtime/ lib/objective-j.js:3946
throw new Error("Could not load file at " + aURL + (compilingFileUrl ? " when compiling " + compilingFileUrl : "") + "\nwith includeURLs: " + StaticResource.includeURLs());
^
Error: Could not load file at Foundation/Foundation.j when compiling file:/Users/gtavares/Desktop/Browser/gtktest
with includeURLs: /Users/gtavares/Desktop/Browser/Frameworks/,/Users/gtavares/Developer/cappuccino/dist/objective-j/Frameworks/
at completed (/Users/gtavares/Developer/cappuccino/node_modules/@objj/runtime/lib/objective-j.js:3946:31)/Users/gtavares/Developer/cappuccino/ and my $CAPP_BUILD set to /Users/gtavares/Developer/cappuccino/Build
#!/usr/bin/env objj