Compiling an App, Assoc with X11, Making .app

[Quantumstate]

I've compiled LiVES now and it runs fine, but I must invoke it from the X11 terminal. I thought maybe /Applications/Utilities/X11/Contents/MacOS/X11 lives would do it, but no.

The goal is to make an .app out of LiVES, meaning to make everything automatic like Gimp. But I can't even figure out how to make an .app after much searching. PackageMaker seems to be close, but it's going in directions that are not intuitive to me.

What's the best approach?

[baf]

The cheat way to create an app is:
Open script editor
save it (empty) as your wanted name and type application bundle.

You will now have this file structure:

$ ls -R testapp.app
Contents/

testapp.app/Contents:
Info.plist      MacOS/          PkgInfo         Resources/

testapp.app/Contents/MacOS:
applet*

testapp.app/Contents/Resources:
Scripts/                applet.rsrc
applet.icns             description.rtfd/

testapp.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts:
main.scpt

testapp.app/Contents/Resources/description.rtfd:
TXT.rtf

Replace applet with your executable. and applet.icns with a suitable icon.

If you want to be nicer go into Info.plist and modify the names there.

But I don't have any good ideas how to make X autostart if it's not running.
Hope this helps partway at least.

[sao]

Quote: Originally Posted by baf But I don't have any good ideas how to make X autostart if it's not running.

Maybe by setting the default for -all- X11 binaries...?

#100 Double-click apps — Launch X11 applications directly in the Finder it

[Quantumstate]

Quote: Originally Posted by sao Maybe by setting the default for -all- X11 binaries...? #100 Double-click apps — Launch X11 applications directly in the Finder it

Yuh, thought of that.

"An error occurred while changing the application that opens "lives-exe" because not enough information is available. Do you want to open 'lives-exe' with 'X11'?" {Update}
"You cannot change the item 'lives-exe' to always open in the selected application. The item is either locked or damaged or in a folder you don't have permission to change."

DOY, so show me how to fix it, OS X. I expected so much more from Apple. I was going to spend the day learning Lives, but this hassle just ruined it; I am not spending my day off troubleshooting the 'easy-to-use' OS which I paid money for.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Quantumstate so show me how to fix it, OS X. I expected so much more from Apple. I was going to spend the day learning Lives, but this hassle just ruined it; I am not spending my day off troubleshooting the 'easy-to-use' OS which I paid money for.

1) I don't think OS X "knows" how to fix the problem.

2) The "easy to use" part doesn't usually extend to apps that you compiled yourself - especially not apps that weren't designed for OS X.

[Quantumstate]

1. That's a shame.

2. Well see, I am forced to Lives because iMovie, Apple's 'easy' app to edit movies, is a useless toy.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Quantumstate iMovie, Apple's 'easy' app to edit movies, is a useless toy

I presume you are talking about iMovie 08. You do know that iMovie 6 (no relation) is available for download from Apple?

And if you are doing serious movie editing, you should go for Final Cut Express.

[Quantumstate]

Referring to iMovie HD 6.03. Hasn't even the most basic editing tools. Try and excise a commercial, or overlay a sound bit.

Before I switched to Mac I'd researched the apps and gathered that yes, they are idiot-simple on the surface, but have pullout drawers and advanced menus for those deeper functions which power-users need. I was wrong.

Final Cut Express is not a serious option at $300, AFAIC. I need to edit movies about once/month and the cost:benefit does not work at all. As OS X is said to be the multimedia OS I thought it had the solution built-in, but it turns out this is a generic crippled toy, a la Microsoft. Same with Finder, Terminal, etc.

I consider open-source to be more stable and secure at any rate, and Lives --even though beta-- seems to be just what I need. But I am just tired of having to do the same software construction and troubleshooting in OS X, as with an OS which I can download for free. I am still trying to make OS X work, thus my requests for help here, but again the cost:benefit ratio is proving a problem. I didn't learn Lives yesterday, when I had time to do that.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Quantumstate Referring to iMovie HD 6.03. Hasn't even the most basic editing tools. Try and excise a commercial, or overlay a sound bit.

I'm not sure what you are looking for since basic editing tools have been available in iMovie since 1.0 - you can cut your video clips anywhere you want.
And there is at least one extra sound track you can use for sound overlays. So I'm completely unsure what you are doing.
But since the use of iMovie is not the topic of this thread, maybe you want to start a new thread to discuss this.

[Quantumstate]

You can crop your movie clips anywhere you want, but you cannot remove an internal segment without convoluted gymnastics. No use in discussing it as iMovie is not an option, and has gotten much worse with v8, as you know.