GUIDE: Using sio2 sdk WITHOUT the template project

The solution is to create a static library. Please read my blog for detail:
http://blog.lyxite.com/2009/01/better-way-of-using-sio2-iphone-sdk.html

Thanks dude. I'm definitely going to do this.


-j

What he forgot to mention is by doing this you won't have access to the debugging symbols... which means that if you pass a wrong value to SIO2 the program will crash showing you only the SIO2 call but not where in the SIO2 code it crash... which might not be suitable for debugging as SIO2 is built low level (same as GL) and won't warn you or check for illegal values pass to its functions...

That might not be the best suitable solution while developing...

This may be a bit off topic, but who do you change the app name? Not the project name but the name thats shows under the icon in the simulator.

Thanks!

Target properties -> Build -> Packaging -> Product Name

(double click the target icon)


-j

Thanks a lot

sio2interactive wrote:What he forgot to mention is by doing this you won't have access to the debugging symbols... which means that if you pass a wrong value to SIO2 the program will crash showing you only the SIO2 call but not where in the SIO2 code it crash... which might not be suitable for debugging as SIO2 is built low level (same as GL) and won't warn you or check for illegal values pass to its functions...

That might not be the best suitable solution while developing...

That is not true.
I can still step into all the sio2 functions and view the value of primitives and structure without any issue. This works for both simulator and device, as long as build config of your game project is set to Debug. Because by doing that, Xcode links the Debug sio2 static library which contains all the necessary debug symbols.
With all that said, it WILL be a bit troublesome if you need to actually modify sio2 static library itself (because you need to open up the sio2 static library project, do some modification and build for all 4 configs).

So i'd say that this way is better for game developers who are using sio2 sdk, but definitely not for sio2 developers.

Honestly I do not think that SIO2 is THAT ready (it is still HIGHLY BETA) to simply link the static lib and then do whatever you want to do with it without any errors etc...

I still think that it is more easy fore every developers to use the template projects and add/debug/modify the SIO2 source code directly to suit their need.

Cheers,

sio2interactive wrote:Honestly I do not think that SIO2 is THAT ready (it is still HIGHLY BETA) to simply link the static lib and then do whatever you want to do with it without any errors etc...

I still think that it is more easy fore every developers to use the template projects and add/debug/modify the SIO2 source code directly to suit their need.

Cheers,

Agreed! I shouldn't have promoted this method as 'a better way', probably 'an alternative way' will be more proper.
Developers may choose this static library way, if they don't have to do much customization to the SDK or if they prefer a slimmer game project.

sio2interactive wrote:Honestly I do not think that SIO2 is THAT ready (it is still HIGHLY BETA) to simply link the static lib and then do whatever you want to do with it without any errors etc...

I still think that it is more easy fore every developers to use the template projects and add/debug/modify the SIO2 source code directly to suit their need.

Cheers,

It is also possible to move the sio2 folder out of the static library and add that folder to each and every game project. In that way, the static library contains only the codes that sio2 depends on (which are relatively stable), but not sio2 itself. Developers can still customize sio2 freely and quickly as they wish.

Hummmm send me a sample project by email to show me the structure that you are using... Im not sure I understand what you mean...

Thanks, lyxera!

I followed your instructions closely and now have my own clean project setup!
The thing I like most is that the compile times are reduced significantly after cleaning a build.

I think there is maybe one step missing in the instructions:
In the projects "Info -> General" tab I had to select "Device - iPhone OS 2.0" as the "Base SDK for All Configurations" prior to adding the frameworks.
Otherwise the OpenGLES framework and its headers wouldn't be found.

You are welcome. Compile time was the motivation at the first place :-)

I did not have the opengl es issue however. Somebody left a comment saying he had a lot of issues relating to opengl es too, it turned out he created a dynamic library instead of static. I'm not sureif your case is the same here.

No, that wasn't necessary i my case. I built a static library and it seems to be working fine.

monsterkodi: Well if you want to speed up the build process even more you can change the # of compiling threads of XCode like this:

1. Open Terminal
2. defaults write com.apple.Xcode PBXNumberOfParallelBuildSubtasks <number of threads>
3. Restart XCode to see the changes...

Thanks for the hint.
I applied it, but can't really recognize any significant speedup because my project is too small yet. It will probably pay off when it grows.

Well, i have made some tests while compiling the new sdk.
The speedup is indeed significant: the compile is almost twice as fast (single task ~75 secs, dual task ~43 secs, on a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo).
Nice, thanks again for the hint.

Well actually me I set the # of threads to 8 and XCode is clever enough to spread 4/4 to the 2 CPU the speed gain is significant... however be careful with the memory if you do that cuz it kinda spike pretty high

Cheers,