OpenOffice.org Mac OS X Port Developer Resources
Updated 2006 August 10, by Eric Hoch
So you're interested in helping us code. Awesome! Here are some things which may prove useful in your travels:
- Beginning Mac OS X Developer FAQ: Read this to learn some suggestions from a former newbie on how to get started, familiarizing yourself with the way the porting team interacts with one another, where to learn about the codebase, and how to get up and running on your first build.
- Build Instructions: Here you find the latest build instructions for the most current and upcomming releases of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X. Find out how to start building them today!
- Build Status [ximian.com]: This page lists the tinderboxes that are continually verifying that various branches of OpenOffice.org compline cleanly. You can help us out by setting up a tinderbox!
- Current Development Activities: Find out the details of what we're working on right now.
- Timeline and Roadmap: Find out an overview of where we need to go and just how much we need your help!
Other Useful Resources
Aside from the OpenOffice.org mailing lists (which you should definitely join!), there may be several other resources that are helpful to the intrepid Mac OS X porter:
- Here is an interview with the former manager of the Mac OS X 10.0.x port of OpenOffice.org code that was released in April, 2001. In it, he offers some invaluable hints and suggestions.
- http://www.apple.com/developer: The official source for documentation on Mac OS X, although it can get spotty at times.
- http://www.omnigroup.com/developer/mailinglists/: One of the best resources for finding out undocumented behavior and getting help on technical Mac OS X issues. Search the development list for either the class name or a rough description of your bug for the best results.
Some Developer FAQ
Will OpenOffice.org be able to run on Darwin?
As Mac OS X is based on Darwin, much of the infrastructure is shared between them. The major difference that affects the OpenOffice.org port is the graphics layer. Right now there are two main thrusts for porting the graphics layer, one targeting Aqua and the other targeting X11. The X11 version should be able to run on Darwin. The OpenOffice.org Mac OS X (X11) versions has all dependencies on Mac OS X factored into separate libraries, so should be able to run. You'll need to use either the tarball installer or build roll your own.
How can I get involved?
You may want to start out by reading our Beginning Mac OS X Developer FAQ for ideas on where best to start.
There are many different ways you can get involved in the Mac OS X port of OpenOffice.org.
- For documentation and source download, please see the Mac OS X build instructions and the main Porting Project page.
- To keep in touch with your fellow porters, subscribe to the mailing lists:
- General discuss: discuss-subscribe@OpenOffice.org
- Mac porting development: mac-subscribe@porting.OpenOffice.org
Right now the porting project needs developers to help move to OpenOffice.org 1.0 sources. If you're not a developer or don't want to much around in the source, don't worry. Feel free to keep in touch on the mailing lists and keep an eye out for anything you can do to help, even if it's just expressing your moral support!
Where is the project now?
We've now finally finished our first official build! Our priorities are to get OpenOffice.org 1.1 compiling and into beta as quickly as possible for X11 and
Where is the project headed?
We've got it building! But where do we go from there? See the Mac OS X porting roadmap for more insight into what we'll work on after we've successfully got the 1.0 sources compiling.
How do I setup a build environment?
Check out our build instructions for Mac OS 10.3 and 10.4. Earlier versions of Mac OS X are no longer supported. Read this thread on dev-porting mailinglist for more informations
How do I contribute patches?
If you've gotten a build together and have modifications to the source code that further the port, please share them with the community and help push the port ahead! Please follow our established procedure for patch submission found here:
http://contributing.openoffice.org/programming.html