4 ms·

Only in spirit. NeXTStep's ProjectBuilder was GNU Make based, and IIRC it directly edited Makefiles (restricted subset of make - and you weren't supposed to tou

by agsnu 5y ago

Only in spirit. NeXTStep's ProjectBuilder was GNU Make based, and IIRC it directly edited Makefiles (restricted subset of make - and you weren't supposed to touch them by hand) and also had a PB.project file that contained some limited metadata. What became Xcode started out life as "Project Builder" (with a space), which was where the pbxproj file format was introduced. This debuted with Mac OS X (possibly circa DP4?) and was a ground-up rewrite - new UI, new project format, new build system (originally it used Jam, a little-known build system created by Perforce, before switching to something custom... IIRC it would generate an ephemeral Jamfile at build time). For a while both could be installed on the same system - you needed ye olde NeXT ProjectBuilder for WebObjects 4.5 projects, and it was known as ProjectBuilderWO on Mac OS X for a while as a result.

eddieh 5y ago
This is correct. The format was really nice during the NeXTStep era. It was an simple ASCII plist file called PB.project. It could be edited by a human. When Apple started "improving" stuff it turned into the SomeProject.pbproj/project.pbxproj file and was not editable by a human. This file would later become SomeProject.xcode/project.pbxproj and then SomeProject.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj all the while getting worse and worse and less editable and less readable/understandable. Here is the entire project file (PB.project) for IORegistryExplorer from Mac OS X 10.0 { APPCLASS = NSApplication; DYNAMIC_CODE_GEN = YES; English_RESOURCES = {}; FILESTABLE = { CLASSES = ( RExplorer.m, "RExplorer-OutlineDelegate.m", "RExplorer-BrowserDelegate.m", CustomOutlineView.m, RSearch.m, RBool.m ); English_INTERFACES = (IORegistryExplorer.nib); FRAMEWORKS = (AppKit.framework, Foundation.framework, IOKit.framework, System.framework); FRAMEWORKSEARCH = (); H_FILES = ( RExplorer.h, CustomOutlineView.h, "RExplorer-OutlineDelegate.h", "RExplorer-BrowserDelegate.h", RSearch.h, RBool.h ); IMAGES = (IORE.tiff); INTERFACES = (); OTHER_LINKED = (IORegistryExplorer_main.m); OTHER_RESOURCES = (IORE.icns); OTHER_SOURCES = (Makefile.preamble, Makefile, Makefile.postamble, CustomInfo.plist); SUBPROJECTS = (); }; LANGUAGE = English; MAKEFILEDIR = "$(MAKEFILEPATH)/pb_makefiles"; NEXTSTEP_APPICON = IORE.tiff; NEXTSTEP_BUILDTOOL = /bin/gnumake; NEXTSTEP_DOCUMENTEXTENSIONS = (); NEXTSTEP_INSTALLDIR = "$(SYSTEM_DEVELOPER_APPS_DIR)"; NEXTSTEP_JAVA_COMPILER = /usr/bin/javac; NEXTSTEP_MAINNIB = IORegistryExplorer.nib; NEXTSTEP_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = /usr/bin/cc; PDO_UNIX_BUILDTOOL = $NEXT_ROOT/Developer/bin/make; PDO_UNIX_INSTALLDIR = /Applications; PDO_UNIX_JAVA_COMPILER = "$(JDKBINDIR)/javac"; PDO_UNIX_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = "$(NEXTDEV_BIN)/gcc"; PROJECTNAME = IORegistryExplorer; PROJECTTYPE = Application; PROJECTVERSION = 2.8; WINDOWS_BUILDTOOL = $NEXT_ROOT/Developer/Executables/make; WINDOWS_INSTALLDIR = /Applications; WINDOWS_JAVA_COMPILER = "$(JDKBINDIR)/javac.exe"; WINDOWS_MAINNIB = "IORegistryExplorer-windows.nib"; WINDOWS_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = "$(DEVDIR)/gcc"; } Simple. Elegant. Usable.
- setpatchaddress 5y ago
  It didn’t scale to large projects, though.

by agsnu 5y ago

eddieh 5y ago

This is correct. The format was really nice during the NeXTStep era. It was an simple ASCII plist file called PB.project. It could be edited by a human. When Apple started "improving" stuff it turned into the SomeProject.pbproj/project.pbxproj file and was not editable by a human. This file would later become SomeProject.xcode/project.pbxproj and then SomeProject.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj all the while getting worse and worse and less editable and less readable/understandable. Here is the entire project file (PB.project) for IORegistryExplorer from Mac OS X 10.0 { APPCLASS = NSApplication; DYNAMIC_CODE_GEN = YES; English_RESOURCES = {}; FILESTABLE = { CLASSES = ( RExplorer.m, "RExplorer-OutlineDelegate.m", "RExplorer-BrowserDelegate.m", CustomOutlineView.m, RSearch.m, RBool.m ); English_INTERFACES = (IORegistryExplorer.nib); FRAMEWORKS = (AppKit.framework, Foundation.framework, IOKit.framework, System.framework); FRAMEWORKSEARCH = (); H_FILES = ( RExplorer.h, CustomOutlineView.h, "RExplorer-OutlineDelegate.h", "RExplorer-BrowserDelegate.h", RSearch.h, RBool.h ); IMAGES = (IORE.tiff); INTERFACES = (); OTHER_LINKED = (IORegistryExplorer_main.m); OTHER_RESOURCES = (IORE.icns); OTHER_SOURCES = (Makefile.preamble, Makefile, Makefile.postamble, CustomInfo.plist); SUBPROJECTS = (); }; LANGUAGE = English; MAKEFILEDIR = "$(MAKEFILEPATH)/pb_makefiles"; NEXTSTEP_APPICON = IORE.tiff; NEXTSTEP_BUILDTOOL = /bin/gnumake; NEXTSTEP_DOCUMENTEXTENSIONS = (); NEXTSTEP_INSTALLDIR = "$(SYSTEM_DEVELOPER_APPS_DIR)"; NEXTSTEP_JAVA_COMPILER = /usr/bin/javac; NEXTSTEP_MAINNIB = IORegistryExplorer.nib; NEXTSTEP_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = /usr/bin/cc; PDO_UNIX_BUILDTOOL = $NEXT_ROOT/Developer/bin/make; PDO_UNIX_INSTALLDIR = /Applications; PDO_UNIX_JAVA_COMPILER = "$(JDKBINDIR)/javac"; PDO_UNIX_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = "$(NEXTDEV_BIN)/gcc"; PROJECTNAME = IORegistryExplorer; PROJECTTYPE = Application; PROJECTVERSION = 2.8; WINDOWS_BUILDTOOL = $NEXT_ROOT/Developer/Executables/make; WINDOWS_INSTALLDIR = /Applications; WINDOWS_JAVA_COMPILER = "$(JDKBINDIR)/javac.exe"; WINDOWS_MAINNIB = "IORegistryExplorer-windows.nib"; WINDOWS_OBJCPLUS_COMPILER = "$(DEVDIR)/gcc"; } Simple. Elegant. Usable.

setpatchaddress 5y ago
It didn’t scale to large projects, though.