I have been trying to learn to program in C for a number of years. I've been held up by a number of factors - lack of time, lack of commitment, lack of a sufficiently powerful computer, lack of a compiler - well, you get the idea.
Well, when I bought a Mac iBook a year ago, I was elated to discover that OS X shipped with a suite of applications for program development. Only problem was - they weren't installed.
I hunted around the directory tree visible from the Aqua desktop. Nothing.
I opened up a terminal and tentatively typed gcc. Nothing happened.
I popped in the "Software Restore" CD-ROM and installed the Developer Tools. Nothing appeared. At this point, maximum frustration level was exceeded.
And, then, finally a few days ago I figured out the location where the elusive OS X Developer Tools were hiding. Bliss!
I hope these instructions (which to my recollection contain every keyword I used in my frustrating search for this information on the Web) save some people the aggravation I experienced. For what it's worth, I am using a 700 MHz G3 iBook running OS X 10.2.8. I believe those of you who have moved on to Panther have a different set of tools now.
- Open the OS X Applications folder.
- Open the Installers folder.
- Open the Developer Tools folder.
- Double-click on the file named Developer.mpkg.
- Go through the usual authentication rigamarole, grab a beer, and wait.
If the Developer Tools aren't at that location, instal them from the Software Restore CDs and try again.
Once installation is done, you should find a new subfolder called Developer in the Macintosh HD folder (assuming you haven't renamed it). This subfolder contains a number of graphical tools for project development. You will also find gcc and other GNU command-line tools in the /usr/bin/ subdirectory available from a Terminal window.
Now I don't have to sit at home at my tiny desk learning C when there's a coffee shop to hang out in . . .
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