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KDevelop Gains Cross-Platform Compilation Support

Tuesday, 4 December 2001  |  Dre

KDevelop's programmer extraordinaire Ralf Nolden has added cross-compilation support to KDevelop. As his initial motivation was to support development for the Zaurus (as we reported earlier this month, Trolltech and Sharp have collaborated on this Linux palmtop), KDevelop can now be used for developing applications for ARM processors (both the Zaurus and Compaq's iPaq are based on the StrongARM). Screenshots of the new KDevelop features are available here, and information about using this new feature to prevail in TrollTech's and Sharp's developers' contest for the Zaurus, as well as the KDevelop announcement, are below.

In addition to the exciting news about KDevelop, TrollTech has announced an international developer contest for the Zaurus SL-5000D (in case you are wondering, Qtopia is the new name for the Qt Palmtop Environment). Submitted applications can have any license, and prizes include cash and electronic gadgets (including Zaurii/Zauruses). To stoke interest in the contest, TrollTech is providing free preview binary SDKs, which will permit developers to create both shareware and commercial applications for the Zaurus (simply enter the contest for download instructions, the entry form should be available on the contest site tomorrow).


DATELINE DECEMBER 3, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Embedding Made Easy - KDevelop Supports Cross-compilation

Leading Open Source C/C++ IDE Adds Cross-Compilation Support

The KDevelop project today announced that KDevelop, the leading Open Source C/C++ Integrated Development Environment, has been enhanced with capabilities for easy cross-compilation of applications (screenshots).

The changes -- including cross-compiler configuration in the setup dialog, a new --enable-palmtop configure switch, as well as the ability to create multiple compile configurations -- enable developers to specify different options to compile the same project, such as the target OS and target architecture. Developers can then dynamically switch between each configuration and effortlessly compile the same project code for these different platforms.

Given the cross-platform capabilities of KDE/Qt, developers employing these toolkits will benefit especially from these new enhancements. For example, developers can now easily develop applications targeting both the desktop and handheld devices such as Sharp's new Zaurus and Compaq's iPaq PDAs.

An updated version of KDevelop incorporating these enhancements will be released as soon as the new features are regarded stable (probably within the next two weeks). In the meantime, developers can test it by downloading KDevelop from KDE CVS.

Press Contacts:
United States:Eunice Kim
The Terpin Group
pmckenna@terpin.com
(1) 650 344 4944 ext. 105
 
Andreas Pour
KDE League, Inc.
pour@kde.org
(1) 917 312 3122
Europe (English and German):Ralf Nolden
nolden@kde.org
(49) 2421 502758

Comments:

Which CVS Tag to check it out? - Bernd Lachner - 2001-12-04

Which CVS Tag is needed to download this version from CVS? The HEAD branch uses Qt3. But I think this ia a extension to KDE_2_2_2_RELEASE. It's a great extension for KDevelop and I want to test it. I hope someone can tell me the correct tag to check it out from cvs.

Re: Which CVS Tag to check it out? - F@lk - 2001-12-04

This is the current KDevelop of branch KDE_2_2_BRANCH heading towards to version number 2.1. Although it's on KDE's 2_2 branch KDevelop itself compiles with Qt3/KDE3 as well as Qt2/KDE2 without any necessary switches. Note that there are also some nice bugfixes, additionally. So it's like a version 2.0.3 Have fun, F@lk

platforms - obi - 2001-12-05

Hi, just for information, is it planned to add more platforms, like SunOS, IRIX, Windows and HP-UX ? This could really benefit to people developping cross platform tools. You develop everything on one OS, then launch a build for each platform, and have the possibility to execute and debug the code on the target platform by automagically rlogin and exporting the display [OK, this works only on platforms featuring X, but for me it's 4/5 of the work done !]

Re: platforms - Carbon - 2001-12-05

And, how is KDevelop going to compile win32/X binaries in a UNIX environment? I can see it now: KDevelop grabs a warez copy of windows, creates a bochs partition, installs Cygwin on it, copies the code over, compiles, deletes everything, and hands back the binary. :-) Seriosuly though, you would at least need some sort of (possibly emulated) Windows installation to at least test the binaries. WINE isn't even close to suitable for that yet, it has a hard enough time running Windows apps you know work (at least, as much as any Windows app can work ;-)

Re: platforms - Kuba Ober - 2002-01-09

AFAIK, Borland's free C++ windows compiler works just fine under Wine. With the ability to run windows command-line utils almost as easily as unix ones (that's what Wine gives), you're home, more-or-less. Still you need the header files and libraries, but these can be downloaded for free - get a windows machine, install SDK on it, and copy the directory over to your unix box.

Re: platforms - Hervé PARISSI - 2002-01-21

Don't you know better ? There's a GCC toolchain suite for Window$, and it exists too in the form of a cross-compiler toolchain. See http://www.libsdl.org/Xmingw32/ http://www.mingw.org So I hope kdevelop could be use to cross-compile at least SDL projects !

Re: platforms - Carbon - 2002-01-21

>Don't you know better ? No, that's why I asked :-) Thanks for the info tho

Re: platforms - Ralf Nolden - 2001-12-05

The crosscompiling stuff is universal and you can extend target archs and os'es if your combination is missing (basically, add the crosscompiler commands). By default the setup covers irix5,6, solaris, *bsd, linux, hp-ux, aix, arm, sh, mips, ppc, i386, bla foo whatever :) You can develop *any* crossplaform stuff with that as long as you use the gnu-tools (which all kdevelop templates do) Ralf

Debugger Support? - Craig Graham - 2001-12-07

Does this allow the KDevelop debugger to run GDB in remote mode? That'd be really useful. I already use KDevelop to edit files for an embedded project (dual MIPS R3K, custom OS), but have to use Kdbg or DDD to debug it 'coz Kdevelop's built in debugger lacks support for remote binarys.

Arm - Mirza - 2001-12-09

Gameboy Advance is also based on ARM7TDMI CPU, and is supported on KDevelop.

Program debugging for Sharp Zaurus applications - Kevin Tse - 2002-05-26

I want to know that in the updated version of KDevelop, is it possible to be used for debugging Sharp Zaurus(QTopia) applications, and even debugging them with using qvfb, the emulator for Sharp Zaurus(QTopia), within KDevelop?