Metrowerks will release CodeWarrior Development Studio for Mac OS, v9 on Sept. 2, which brings several new features and a new pricing structure.
“Version 9 is the most comprehensive and most stable version of CodeWarrior we’ve ever released for the Mac community,” Greg Hemstreet, Metrowerks’ director of product marketing, Standard Products and Core Technologies, told MacCentral.
It runs under Mac OS X, but can be used to build applications for both Mac OS X and the classic Mac operating system. Now, Metrowerks has a solution for developers to move from the classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, Hemstreet said. CodeWarrior 9 can also be used to build Windows software. The CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment (IDE) provides a multi-host, multi-language and multi-target solution.
“CodeWarrior’s debugger can cross link over to a Windows machine, just as our Windows tool allows you to build a Mac application,” Hemstreet said. “The cross platform development tools for the Mac provides the ability to develop on the Mac OS X for multiple targets, meaning developers can build software for Mac OS X, Classic OS, and Windows operating systems, using the same development environment. Using CodeWarrior tools for cross-platform projects minimizes code changes between platforms and eliminates the need to support different development environments on different platforms.”
Also, with version 9, developers can now remotely debug classic Mac OS applications by targeting it on one system while running Mac OS X on another Mac. This, too, can save lots of time, he added.
Metrowerks breaks out the Mac market into five market segments: large developers, small developers, hobbyists, Web developers, and students. CodeWarrior is designed more for the commercial developer, though the company also has a large student base (and offers the CodeWarrior Learning Edition specifically for this market), Hemstreet said. Companies such as Adobe, Maya, Macromedia, Corel, Microsoft and more, use the CodeWarrior tools to build their products, he added.
Hemstreet said the CodeWarrior IDE has everything required for development in one suite: a project manager, build system, source code editor, compilers, linkers, debuggers, class browser, tutorials and more.
The IDE lets you edit, navigate, examine, compile, link, debug and configure options for code generation, project navigation, and other operations within the same environment. The CodeWarrior IDE includes a class browser that is designed to navigate and edit code. The class browser builds a database of the symbols in the code, allowing developers to quickly look up the definition or implementation of any symbol in their projects.
The CodeWarrior Project Manager holds and organizes source files, libraries, and dependencies. The multifunctional editor lets you view, edit, and manipulate source files. The CodeWarrior debugger steps through each line of code, edits code, change the values of variables, inspects contents of the processor’s registers, and sets breakpoints.
“PowerPlant is the most powerful C++ framework for Mac OS,” Hemstreet said. “Developers can save time and effort by leveraging this C++ class library that provides standard services and infrastructure for all Mac OS and Classic OS applications. The new PowerPlant C++ framework in CodeWarrior 9 allows developers to write native Mac OS X code using Mac OS X support features.”
The PowerPlant X Framework of Development Studio for Mac OS, v9 offers: a C++ Class library that supports Mac OS X 10.2 and later editions; Carbon Events; HI Views; and Unicode support.
New Editor enhancements to the Editor, including code completion for Objective-C, are designed to save developers time and effort. The new packaging feature offers a visual display of their package. (Packaging is the final stage in building a Mac application.)
The Editor in Development Studio for Mac OS, v9 supports; word wrap while printing; automatic code formatting (one of most requested features, Hemstreet said); syntax coloring for Objective-C; a Function pop-up menu that knows Objective-C methods; the ability to move forward/backward a function at a time; and new text searching options (search in comments only, search outside comments only, an search everywhere).
Packaging is now a complete drag and drop mechanism. There’s a new tab in the IDE project window for layout packages, the ability to enable arbitrary user-specified layouts, and the capacity to copy any file or folder to the package.
When it comes to code completion, Development Studio for Mac OS, v9 offers: new completion for Objective-C, new completion for C++ templates, and new completion for compiler #pragma options. The update’s debugger has a new breakpoints window that lets you group breakpoints into logical groupings; you can also now name breakpoints. There’s also a new profile information viewer (which isn’t the same as the CodeTest product that was recently introduced) and a new trace viewer. There are also enhancements in the C/C++ PowerPC Compiler 3.2, Mach-O Linker, and Metrowerks Standard Library.
And with version 9, Metrowerks is continuing to increase the compiler speeds. Hemstreet said the company was aiming at a “pretty aggressive target for compiler speed improvement.”
“We want to provide the most professional toolset possible, and one that is also complementary with other toolsets such as Revolution and RealBasic,” he added.
Hemstreet said that CodeWarrior will continue to work with all Apple processors. Support for the Power Mac G5 is in the works, but won’t be part of the CodeWarrior 9 release.
For new customers, CodeWarrior Development Studio for Mac OS, v9, has modular pricing:
Customers who are users of CodeWarrior Development tools for Mac OS 7 or 8, CodeWarrior Development tools for Mac OS and Windows 7 or 8, or CodeWarrior Development Studio Mac OS X Edition 8 may renew their license to CodeWarrior Development Studio for Mac OS, v9, as follows:
“In the past pricing was all-inclusive,” Hemstreet said. “Now we’ve chosen to allow you to start from the base that you desire; you can add to it from there. It’s more of an a la carte kind of offering. You can choose the toolset you need to get the job done. We believe we’re offering more value for the money.”
Development Studio for Mac OS, v9 requires Mac OS X (10.2 or higher), a Power Mac G3 (a G4 is highly recommended), at least 128MB of RAM, and 350MB of free hard disk space for a minimal install (700MB is recommended).