Learning Cocoa

Other Development Tools

In addition to Project Builder and Interface Builder, there are other applications you can use in the Cocoa development process. Development tools featuring a graphical user interface are listed in Table 4.1. Except where noted, these applications are installed in /Developer/Applications.

Table 4-1. Development Tools

Name	Description
FileMerge	Visually compares the contents of two files or two directories. You can use FileMerge, for example, to determine the differences between versions of the same source code file or between two project directories. You can also use it to merge changes.
icns Browser	Displays the entire contents of Mac OS X icon files.
IconComposer	Creates Mac OS X icon files from source art.
IORegistryExplorer	Provides a hierarchical display of the system I/O registry.
JavaBrowser	Displays the Java class hierarchy and documentation.
MallocDebug	Measures the dynamic-memory usage of applications, finds memory leaks, analyzes all allocated memory in an application, and measures the memory allocated since a given time.
MRJAppBuilder	Converts executable Java into double-clickable applications for Mac OS X.
ObjectAlloc	Tracks and displays all object allocations (both Cocoa and Core Foundation) for a running application. Allows you to view the list of objects as well as the call stack that resulted in each allocation.
OpenGL Info	Displays OpenGL renderer properties.
PackageMaker	Creates Mac OS X installer packages.
PEFViewer	Displays the contents of PEF (Preferred Executable Format) executables.
Pixie	Magnifies the screen area under the cursor, allowing you to see the exact pixels comprising any onscreen object. Magnification is adjustable from 1 to 12 times normal.
PropertyListEditor	Opens, displays, and/or modifies the contents of a property list (.plist) file.
QuartzDebug	Displays a list of all windows known to the system. Allows you to turn on a Quartz debugging mode that flashes yellow over areas of the screen as they are updated by the window server.
Sampler	Analyzes performance characteristics of your application by sampling the call stack of your program over a user-specified period of time.