Abe's (via Mowser)

NO MORE LOGS!!!!! (Using breakpoints in xCode)

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I cant count the number of times I have compiled an app and found my self lost in logs. This is not not just an xCode issue I have come across this in every language/IDE I have used. For some reason we like to log it and leave it.

We give our selves all maner of excuses for not removing logÂ statements. Whether its needed so every developerÂ on the project knows whats happening or simply notÂ Â having time to go back and remove them. We do end upÂ accumulatingÂ a lot of logs over the span of a project.

Dont get me wrong a well placed log can makeÂ debuggingÂ a problem much easier. There are other ways to do it though. Using breakpoints in xCode rocks logging as well as giving you a few extra perks.

Lets start with right click and editing a breakpoint to see:

Now this is one of my favorite tools in xCode. Off that bat it allows for conditional breaks. The above break for example will not break unless theÂ variableÂ newPos is equal to 42. This can help with keeping an eye on a value to make sure it does not act inÂ appropriatelyÂ and ifÂ doesÂ you will get the break. How ever clicking the actions text above marked with a blue arrow willÂ unleashÂ the true power behind the xCode breakpoint.

Out of the 5 above options I only use two with anyÂ frequency. Â The “DebuggerÂ Command” which will allow you to log, inject calls and setÂ variables. Â The “Log Message” more for english messages and keeping track of theÂ frequencyÂ of code used. Â OH ya one more thingÂ ”Log Message” supports text to speech.

Lets start with the “DebuggerÂ Command”:

“po someObject” looks like it would print the description of someObject. Thats not all though. Dont forget the conditional above it “newPos == 42″. Combine the two and you will only print someObject to the consol whenÂ newPos is equal to 42. If you uncheckÂ the bottomÂ checkbox “Option” it will log the description with out breaking.

You can also use theÂ fieldÂ to more than log. Be careful Â though as this can easily cause problems if you forget to remove or disable the break.

The command could be to call a function or set aÂ variableÂ like this: “newPos = 13″

If you were to forget to remove a command like that it could burn a lot of timeÂ trackingÂ it down.

Moving onto the “Log Message”:Â

This obviously prints a message. If you look under textÂ fieldÂ to the right you can see a key. Above I used the %H which will be replaced by the number of times the break has been hit. Also if youÂ rememberÂ to uncheck the Option at the botton it wont break but will simply log at the break.

You also get the option to have the message read out loud. This isÂ usefulÂ if youÂ haveÂ to keep your attention on the app and cant keep an eye on the logs.

This covers the two basicÂ implementations. What if you need to do more than one thing like runÂ multipleÂ commands?

Stacking Actions:

Pressing the + button as indicated above by the orange arrow. That would be the top arrow as the bottom one is yellow. (my color selection isÂ rubbish) You getÂ anotherÂ action that runs at the same time. Â You can run any number of commands in the one break which can provide very rich loggin andÂ debuggingÂ capabilities.

ManagingÂ your breaks:

TogglingÂ the button indicated by the green arrow you can enable or disable all your breaks in one go.

The only way to manage large numbers of logs is to search nslog and edit the file. This willÂ causeÂ the file to have been touched wich will obviously need versioning.Â FortunatelyÂ if you open the break window indicated by the blue arrow above. A list of all your breaks and their locations can be found.

Each break can be enabled or disabled by pressing the break symbol to its right as indicated by the purple arrow above.

SharingÂ Breaks:

Most projects are versionÂ controlledÂ withÂ eitherÂ SVN or GIT. In all of my projects we make sure to ignore the personal settings folder in theÂ .xcodeproj file. WhichÂ incidentallyÂ is just a folder. You can right click “Show its Contents”. In there you will find a folder called “xcuserdata” this will contain the personal profile for eachÂ developer. It will containÂ Â theÂ developerÂ specificÂ xCode settings like layout. This folder is ignored and neverÂ committedÂ or pushed.

However if you were to share a breakpoint.

Right click a break point and select share as seen above. It creates a new folder in the project file. The “xcshareddata” can then be used to share break points with otherÂ developersÂ . Say you had aÂ particularlyÂ nasty bug and set up someÂ particularlyÂ elaborateÂ breaks they would be easily passed on toÂ anotherÂ developerÂ who could help you or continue on the work.

Filed under Interface Builder, iOS, iPhone, Obj-c, Objective-C

October 20, 2011

The description method

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Any object canÂ implementÂ the description method that is used to return a description of theÂ contentsÂ of aÂ receiver. The problem i have always found with this method. Is keeping the method up to date during theÂ developmentÂ process. Also getting otherÂ developersÂ working on the project also keeping it up to date.

With that problem in mind I put together this method that willÂ automaticallyÂ generateÂ the string and list allÂ availableÂ properties in the theÂ receiver. It will print out when the instance is used in NSLog or or printed using the GDB debugger commands in myÂ previousÂ post.

//this will automatically create a description
//based on the properties
- (NSString*) description
{
    unsigned int propCount, i;
    //gets a list of all properties in the
    //created in this class and the property count
    objc_property_t *properties = class_copyPropertyList([self class], &propCount);

    //used to hold all the properties
    NSMutableArray *keys = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:propCount];

    for(i = 0; i < propCount; i++)
        {
        //extracts a single property
        objc_property_t property = properties[i];
        //gets the property name
        const char *propName = property_getName(property);

        //checks to make sure there is a name
        if(propName)
                {
            //converts the name to a usable object
            NSString *propertyName = [NSString stringWithCString:propName
                                                        encoding:NSNonLossyASCIIStringEncoding];
            //adds it to a list of keys
            [keys addObject:propertyName];
        }
    }
    //frees the properties
    free(properties);

    //attempt to simulate the dictionary log by using the %p to get the memory address
    //the last %@ is used for all the items added to the dictionary
    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"<%@: %p; %@>",
                                      NSStringFromClass([self class]),
                                      self,
                                      [self dictionaryWithValuesForKeys:keys]];
}

You can also find it on my custom xCode 4 templates here on github. Right at the bottom the class.

Filed under iOS, iPhone, Mac + OSX, Obj-c, Objective-C, xCode

October 11, 2011

xCode GDB Debugger Commands

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One of the things that I struggled with going from eclipse and Visual Studio to xCode was the the debugger. Â Most of the objects have memory references rather than values. For a long time while developing iOS apps all i would get, or though I had was one cryptic error message. Till I discovered po which stands for print object. This allowed me to print out the contents of an object which can be very useful.

Here is Â list of gdb commands: (Warning properties are not identified by theÂ debuggerÂ so dont use anything with dot notation)

po – print object – can be used to print out the likes of NSStrings and NSDictionaries
use: po someObject

print – prints base types – used to print out to the screen ints floats and the like
use: print myFloat

set – set aÂ variableÂ - allows you to setÂ variables
use: Â set someString=@”test”

call – calls a method – can be used to call methods or the properties getters and setters
use: – call [someObjectInstance withString:@"newString"];

n – Next – always you to travers your code during breck
use: n

There are 2 main places you can use the commands.

The first is the consol output during a break or crash just after the gdb:

The second is in a break point first set a break point then click the “Click to add action text” ass seen bellow.

Now you can add you command in the newlyÂ available textÂ fieldÂ that will always beÂ triggeredÂ at that point in the code.

Carful with theÂ breakÂ pointÂ triggersÂ not to confuse your self if you put sets or calls in there.

Filed under iOS, iPhone, Mac + OSX, Obj-c, Objective-C, xCode

September 22, 2011

Setting up xCode 4 Projects

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Every time I start a new xCode project i do it a little differently. I include files in some and settings in others. I have decided to put them all here to make sure i don’t miss any. If you have any other project settings, scripts, snippets or useful utils please drop a comment.

1. Enabling and dealing with Zombies:

This allows you to find errors that come from delloced objects being called upon. ThatÂ normallyÂ just gives you theÂ uselessÂ error bad access. with this enabled it should take to a class or function when you see the bad access error. This can be dealt with in 2 ways either enabling zombies in the editor thus allowing you toÂ debugÂ it in xCode or using instruments. If the first method does not work for you try the second.

Method 1 xCode Debug:

get to the run settings by press: cmd+alt+r from the left naveÂ select “RUN Â yourApp.app” select “Arguments” from the right tab system expand if not already expanded the environmentÂ variables add NSZombieEnabled the nameÂ parameterÂ and YES to the valueÂ parameter

Method 2 instruments Debug:

Rather than take you through it Mark Johnson has created a good video that talks you through it.

This page contained an embedded video. Click here to view it.

Check out his blog post for more details:Â http://www.markj.net/iphone-memory-debug-nszombie/

2. Replacing NSLog with PSLog

PSLog is a NSLog replacment. I have seen it arround for a while now. Basicly it gives you a bit more info like where log is called from. The only problem with it, is the dependancy it creates on having to keep importing PSLog in every one of your projects.

I modified it so you can use NSLog in your code and at compile time in debug mode it replaces your NSLogs with PSLogs. During deploy it replaces NSLog with comments. This way it removes any depandacies on the PSLog function.

How ever this only applies to the PSLog function it self none of its expanded counter parts like PSLogDebug. Using PSLogDebug will maintain a dependancy.

Check it out:

https://github.com/abeazam/PSLog.git

If you #import “PSLog.h” in the .pch file in the support group in your project you wont have import it in every file you want to use it. which Helps the whole dependancy issue.

TODO, FIXME converted to warnings

I duno if you noticed but if you add a //TODO: or //FIXME: comments itÂ appearsÂ in the function menu. The problem with that though is you need to be in the class to see the list. Ideally what I wanted was a list of todos that I can see them all in one place. You can do that by adding a bash script that adds them as warnings.

Select your project in the left hand menu Select your project in the target right hand menu Click “Add Build Phase” in the bottom right. Select “Add Run Script” Past in the script below and your done

KEYWORDS="TODO:|FIXME:|\?\?\?:|\!\!\!:"
find "${SRCROOT}" \( -name "*.h" -or -name "*.m" \) -print0 | xargs -0 egrep --with-filename --line-number --only-matching "($KEYWORDS).*\$" | perl -p -e "s/($KEYWORDS)/ warning: \$1/"

i think this guy might have come up with it: http://deallocatedobjects.com/2011/05/11/show-todos-and-fixmes-as-warnings-in-xcode-4/

Snippets
Snippets are one of the things that stood out to me in xCode. Here are a few of mine:

Completion shortcut – log
Completion scope – function and method

NSLog(@"<#value#>: %<#@#>",<#var#>);

Completion shortcut – imp
Completion scope – processor directive

 #import "<#header#>"

If you want to make a variable just stick them in <#here#>.

Crash Log Server

http://quincykit.net/

https://github.com/therealkerni/QuincyKit

Sends the crashÂ reportÂ to a serverÂ with a single line of code. I have not tried the push notifacsion but every thing else seems to work resonably.

http://quincykit.net/

Please let me know if you find anything else that helps keep a project in shape.

Filed under Interface Builder, Mac + OSX, Obj-c, Objective-C, xCode

June 24, 2011

Unix and SSH Files From Scratch

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Again I am assuming some Technical/Programming experience. No Unix experience except for my previous post. I am going to cover some default files. As well as how to make you own bash file. I am going to try and explain this through a tutorial on how to add a welcome message to your login.

The first thing you need to do is decide on a message. You could just have a one line message like “Ola welcome to the server” which would be fine.

On the other hand if you really wana go at it. You could get some ascii art or text. Personally I am far from an ascii artist but I have ascii every where. There are a few websites that have ascii fonts. All you have to do is type in what you want and it will write it in ascii for you. http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ was the last site I tried. There are loads out there.

If you have administrative rights on your box creating your welcome msg is easy. If you dont have admin rights thats fine, you can use Option 2Â which is also easy.

If you are unsure if you have admin access try and open an editor with admin access if it lets you in, BINGO your admin. Type in sudo pico enter your password when prompted if it lets into the pico editor then you have admin.

sudo pico

Option 1(if you are admin)

There is a file named motd. It is just a text file without the txt file extension. Anything saved in the file will be displayed when you log in.

Step 1 Navigate to your root of your system

 cd /

Step 2 Navigate to the etc folder

 cd etc

Step 3 Edit the motd file with admin access

 sudo pico motd

Step 4 Type or copy/past your welcome msg in to your editor

Step 5 Save and exit

Now if you log off the server and log in again you should see your msg.

Option 2(if you are on a shared host or if you dont have admin)

So you dont have admin access and you want to trigger something at login. Well what you do is save the msg in a text file then prompt it to be displayed. There is Â file that runs every time you log in named .bash_profile. What we will do is create a bash file that when run will display the text from the file. Now this is a bit of a round about way of doing it but it helps cover both bash files and the .bash_profile.

Anything you want to run at login can be added to the .bash_profile file.

A bash file is a Unix file that runs a group of commands. It has a language behind it that contains most of what you would expect if statements, loops, etc. Bash stands for Bourne Again Shell. you can use it to make your server practically do anything.

Step 1 Navigate to your home directory. This is the directory u start in when u log in.

Step 2 Create a new text file called login.txt

touch login.txt

Step 3 Assuming you have your msg ready or your ascii if not go get it se the links above.

Step 4 Open the the login.txt file in an editor

pico login.txt

Step 5 Past your msg save and exit pico

Step 6 Find the location of you bash

echo $SHELL

Step 7 Copy the return value it is more than likely this: Â Â /bin/bash Â Â but not necessarily

Step 8 Create a new file in you home directory again which is the bash script

touch login.sh

Step 9 Edit the bash script in pico

pico login.sh

Step 10 Type in #! then the bash location that you copied in Step 7

#!/bin/bash

Step 11 Type the command that will display the text

cat login.txt

Step 12 Save and Exit

Step 13 While still in the root set the permisions for bash file

chmod 700 ./login.sh

Step 14 In your home directory edit your .bash_profile so it runs the login bash at login time

pico .bash_profile

Step 15 Add to the bottom of the file the command that runs your bash

./login.sh

Step 16 Save and Exit

Thats all there is. Next time you login you should see your msg. This covers of the basics if you want to know how to write complex scripts there are loads of guides and tutorials to help you on your way out on the interwebs,

Filed under Server, ServerSide, ssh, unix

May 6, 2011

Unix and SSH Commands From Scratch

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In my last post I discussed node.js. This can be installed on a server. Originally I wanted to talk through how I installed Node.js and what plugins I have come to use. I took a look around and found a few ppl struggling with ssh. I figured best to cover some of the basics of server based commands first. I expect any one reading this have some Technical/Programming experience.

I am going to assume you have a sever and are working from a Unix based machine(Linux or OSX).

Accessing your server:

ssh usr@host

usr: would be your user name to the server for the sake if this example lets say your user name is peter

host: is your server url/ip lets say for this example itsÂ Watson.com

so in your command window type in your server details press enter:

#these are fake details use your user name and server in their place
ssh peter@watson.com

Enter you password and you should be in.

Basic Commands:

Here is a list of basic commands to help you move around the folders and manipulate the files.

#this is how you comment if you where to write a script file
ls

Type that and it will list all the files and folders

ls -a

That will show all the hidden files too.

cd somefolder/

Primary navigation command.

cd ..

goes up a folder.

cd folderName

navigates to the folder with the name folderName

cd ~

Takes you to your home directory.

mkdir newDirName

creates a directory

cp txtFile.txt somefolder/copyOfFile.txt

copies file.txt to someFolder and renames the file.

mvÂ txtFile.txt somefolder/copyOfFile.txt

moves file.txt to someFolder and renames the file.

rm txtFile.txt

deletes txtFile.txt

touch newTextFile.txt

touch creates the file with no content

top

Displays resources and process

Downloading

wgetÂ http://www.google.co.uk/index.html

wget downloads a file at a location the above line downloads googles index.html page

git clone https://github.com/joyent/node.git

git clone will clone a git repository to your current location

svn checkout http://as3-youtube-data-api.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ as3-youtube-data-api-read-only

svn checkout checks out a svn repo

Editors
You will edit a lot of text files on server a far bit. So I will list 3 Degrees of editors.

Easy

pico textFile.txt

this one is easy all shortcuts (^ is ctrl) are listed at the bottom but not as powerful as the other two.

Medium

vi Â textFile.txt

this is obviously more powerful than pico but to achieve that it uses states when u start you can’t type you need to enable typing. This is just a taster of how to use it. There are entire pages on the web that list all the shortcuts.

i
press i when u are not in edit mode and it will insert the cursor to allow you to type

press ESC then :wq
esc enters command mode w stands for write and q stands for quite so save and exit

press ESC then :q!
quit with out saving

Hard

vim Â textFile.txt

best text editor i could write a whole post on it. If you wana use google it.

Compiling Code
In Unix you can tailer a build for your system. so its compiled for you and you alone Lets say you downloaded a project from the internet using git or svn.

Complete in order below

cd
to the location of the files

./configure

set settings in the build for your machine its automated it just does it

make

compiles your code

make check

tests the compile

make install

installs your compiled code

make clean

Removes all the compiled files and cleans up for you

Comming soon Â sudo pico /etc/motd

Filed under Mac + OSX, Node.js, Server, ssh, unix

April 19, 2011

Node.js

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links: Node.js npm forever

Over the years I have dipped in and out of a few different server side languages. PHP, Ruby, ColdFusion and Java to mention some. I guess the root of my issues with them is how infrequently I need to use them. It does not help that none of them share any development paradigms outside OO.

Some one mentioned Node.js to me when I discussed some ideas I was toying with. I immediately blanked them on the grounds that JS is client side and I specifically had a server side problem to resolve. I brushed the dust of my PHP book and got to work.

As what always happens to me when I am building things in PHP I ran into problems. As always I vent at a few friends to blow of some steam. As I did this people I knew kept on mentioning Node.js.

I eventually caved and looked it up. What no one had mention or in some case I didn’t give them a chance to mention. Is that Node.js is Googles V8 engine running on a server doing all those pesky backend Networking tasks in JavaScript. A Open Source ECMAScript platform will the internet ever ceases to amaze me.

After watching the video on the node.js website see link above I was flabbergasted atÂ how easy it was. I figured IÂ could build my solusion in no more than one day. I installed it on my server. Which took Â all of 10 min. no really thats how long it took me to download the files compile the latest build and install it. It was disgracefully fast.

So I got to work. One and a half hours later I was was looking at my editor thinking surely i cant be done there must be now way its that easy to set up two TCP servers and an http server. Yet it was done plain as day all running and working.

If you are going to give it a try i recommend npm which is the plugin manger for Node.js and using it to install forever which helps you manege which servers you want to keep up. all links are at the top of the post. Obviously i would recommend it. I have even heard it runs on some shared hosts admittedly a little cut down but more than enough to inspire.

Filed under Networking, Node.js, Server, ServerSide

April 1, 2011

cocos2d: WARNING: format is not supported for CCSpriteFrameCache

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I have been working away at same iPhone gameÂ development.

I found a nice sprite sheet editor zwoptex:Â http://zwoptexapp.com which is compatible with the engineÂ IÂ was using cocos2d:Â http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/

Little didÂ IÂ know there was some version issues between the exporter and the engine. Zwoptex exports a png and a plist that contains all theÂ meta-dataÂ for the sprite sheet. If you are getting the bellowÂ mentioned error you might be reading onlineÂ variousÂ suggestions like installing older versions of zwoptex or a new versions of the Â engine.

Solution:

As it turns out all you have to do isÂ un-checkÂ Â rotate from inside zwoptex publish the files. Edit the plistÂ generatedÂ by zowptex and change the root>>metadata>>format number from 2 to 1 save clean your build recompile and your done.

cocos2d error:

ocos2d: WARNING: format is not supported for CCSpriteFrameCache addSpriteFramesWithDictionary:texture:

Full Error:

Terminating app due to uncaught exception ‘NSInternalInconsistencyException’, reason: ‘cocos2d: WARNING: format is not supported for CCSpriteFrameCache addSpriteFramesWithDictionary:texture:’

2010-09-13 16:01:36.353 TileMap[12915:40b] Stack: (

46889040,

48046892,

46626571,

4768532,

450434,

452386,

10372,

298606,

9808,

8936,

8317326,

8321359,

8346942,

8328439,

8360408,

57418108,

46168220,

46164136,

8319521,

8352626

)

Filed under cocos2d, Games Development, iOS, iPhone, Obj-c, Objective-C, plist, sprites, zwoptex

September 13, 2010

Password Protecting Mail.app and your e-mails

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One of the issues I had with using the Mail.app on OSX is its lack ofÂ security.

If some one is logged in as you they then get access to everything else on you machine like say your mail client.

NowÂ IÂ really like the Mail client. I have no intention of switching clients. So a solution was required.

After a little digging i found there was no mods for Mail. No hacks or any other means in which to password protect the client and the mail.Â EventualÂ IÂ realisedÂ IÂ was doing it all wrong its not the emails and the client that can be protected but where they are being stored is what can be protected.

IÂ finallyÂ realisedÂ ifÂ IÂ created a encrypted dmg and ran everything from there it wouldÂ yieldÂ the same results.

Aim:
Get both the Mail.app and my email onto a password protected drive.

Process:

Open Disk Utility to create the encrypted DMG /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app Click “New Image” on the top Select a Name and a save as location FurtherÂ down under size select the sizeÂ IÂ made mine 10GB Â this depends on how much mail you expect to storeÂ locally Below that make sure select the Encryption Hit create set the password and now you should have a mounted encrypted drive Move your Mail app Â from /Applications/ to the root of your mounted encrypted drive cut it don’t copy it Then make make an alias of the Mail app in the in the /Applications/ folder(ctrlÂ draggingÂ the icon) Now you need to cut and past your emails to the encrypted drive find the folder /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Mail and past it in the encrypted drive Now make an alias of the mail folder from you encrypted drive Â back to the /Users/abraham.azam/Library/ (ctrlÂ draggingÂ the folder) Finished.

If you click the mail icon on the Dock it should now access your mail client and your amils from a scure and ecrypted location. if you unmount the drive and click the icon it will promt you for the password to the dmg then opens the mail app.

please let em know what you think of these steps

Filed under Mac + OSX, Security

September 6, 2010

Windows 7 Mobile SDK

1 Comment

Mix is upon us ons again.Â MicrosoftÂ hasÂ finally released the Windows 7 Mobile SDK which can be found here. There is a supporting site with informationÂ here about the new platform and some examples.

Win7 Mobile is not built onÂ previousÂ windows mobile platform but a clean concept. TheÂ developmentÂ tools are new to mobile too. ItÂ utilisesÂ Silverlight and XNA for applicationÂ and gamesÂ development. So it will start with a pretty bigÂ developerÂ base.

IÂ was hoping to get aÂ peakÂ at the new Windows Mobile OS from the emulator but allÂ IÂ found was the Â browser. The UI and other things are there. TheÂ abilityÂ to compile and tests apps so early is also very nice put none of theÂ rumouredÂ integrationÂ with core appsÂ featuresÂ seem to beÂ availableÂ yet.Â Â You do on the other hand get to see what the feel of there userÂ journeyÂ is like and how the menus and navs will work.

All and all worth a look.

Edit:

Here is some new Blend 4 + Windows 7 Mobile plugin in for Blend

and

Here is some nice tutorials.

Filed under C#, Mobile, Silverlight, Windows 7 Mobile

March 16, 2010

← Older posts

NO MORE LOGS!!!!! (Using breakpoints in xCode)

The description method

xCode GDB Debugger Commands

Setting up xCode 4 Projects

Unix and SSH Files From Scratch

Unix and SSH Commands From Scratch

Node.js

cocos2d: WARNING: format is not supported for CCSpriteFrameCache

Password Protecting Mail.app and your e-mails

Windows 7 Mobile SDK

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