Sometimes one needs to edit a system configuration file on Mac OS X. While these files are usually text files, you can’t used Mac OS’ “TextEdit” tool to do this. Fortunately, there is a free alternative to “TextEdit” called TextWrangler.

Important: Make sure that you don’t use the AppStore version as this version doesn’t allow editing locked files. (Apple’s store guidelines prohibit this.)

First, select File –> Open... from the menu. Then, since system configuration files are often hidden or in hidden folders, select Show hidden items at the bottom of the “Open” dialog.

Then open the file you want to edit. You may notice that the file is in read-only mode (represented by the icon in the upper left corner).

To switch to write mode, either click this icon or start editing the file’s content. In both cases you’ll be asked to unlock the file. After that, you can edit the file.

When you’re done, simply save the file. You’ll be asked for your password since you’re editing a system file (that doesn’t belong to you). And that’s it.

Note: The AppStore version doesn’t ask you for your password but instead asks you to save the file under a different name.

Frohe Weihnachten, liebe Leser.

So true – oh, did I say that out loud?

Google made developing an Android app fairly simple. Everything you need can be downloaded for free from Android’s development site. This includes the Android API, an Android emulator (for running Android apps directly on your computer), and an Eclipse plugin called ADT (Android Developer Tools). However, there’s one thing missing: the Java source code.

The Problem ¶

Despite the fact the Android is (supposed to be) an open source project, the downloads don’t include the source code of Android. So, when opening an Android class in Eclipse, you may see something like this:

To solve this problem you had to manually download the whole Android source code (which contains much more than just the Java source code files) and then manually assemble a source files directory from the Java files scattered throughout the Android source tree. Very tedious and certainly not very simple.

The Solution ¶

Fortunately, there is a Google Code project named “adt-addons” aiming to solve this problem. The project actually consists of several Eclipse plugins, but the one you want is called “Android Sources”. You can either search the instructions on the project page, or follow them (nicely formatted) here.

Basically what you need is to install the “Android Sources” plugin (about 170 MB). Here’s the update URL:

http://adt-addons.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/source/com.android.ide.eclipse.source.update/

After installing the plugin, simply restart Eclipse and the Android source code is already attached to the Android classes.

This is just a note to my self of what Eclipse plugins I’ll use. This list may, however, also be useful to you.

• Subclipse: Subversion support
• MercurialEclipse: Mercurial support
• ExploreFS: This plugin allows you to open a file in Windows Explorer/Finder through the context menu.
• CheckStyle: This plugins allows you define more precise rules for your code style. If a rule is violated, a warning is issued.

• TestNG: Unit testing framework (much like JUnit)

To see what plugins have already been installed, go to Help –> Install new software… and click on What is already installed? at the bottom of the dialog.

In this part of the “Projects in Visual C++ 2010″ mini series another important aspect of C++ programming is explain: precompiled headers. Precompiled headers (or precompiled header files) in many cases significantly reduce the time needed to compile a project.

Here at work I have a C++ project with about 50 .cpp files in it. The project uses the Qt library and all files only include the absolute minimum of header files required. Without precompiled headers, compiling the project takes about 56 seconds. With precompiled headers, the compile time goes down to about 7 seconds. That’s eight times faster.

Related Articles:

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 1: Creating a DLL project

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 2: Project Dependencies

This article is the second part of the subprojects mini series. The first part was about creating a DLL project. This part will show how to use a DLL library project in another project.

Referencing a library in C++ (or, more specific, with Visual C++) is somewhat cumbersome – or should I say, used to be somewhat cumbersome. Fortunately, with the release of Visual C++ 2010 this has been greatly simplified. This article first shows the old way and then describes the new (simple) way.

Related Articles:

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 1: Creating a DLL project

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 3: Precompiled Headers

When you write software, you often/sometimes divide your project into several subprojects. This mini series describes how to do this with Visual C++ 2010 (but this first part also applies to earlier versions). We start with creating a library project in form of a DLL.

Related articles:

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 2: Project Dependencies

• Projects in Visual C++ 2010 – Part 3: Precompiled Headers

(via xkcd.com)

Nach intensiven Protesten durch verärgerte Apple-Nutzer ist der Bundestrojaner ab demnächst endlich auch für Mac-Computer verfügbar. Der Bundestrojanerbeauftragte beteuerte, die App bereits zur Prüfung an den Appstore übermittelt zu haben. Dort werde überprüft, ob ggf. Urheberrechte verletzt würden oder unzulässige Worte wie “Fuck”, “Bitch” oder “Android” im Quelltext der Anwendung vorkämen.

Sehr lustig. Hier der vollständige Text.

Haha

(via ApfelBlog)