Thursday, July 19, 2012

Apple Developer Xcode and Lion

Greetings:

I really should NOT have to write a blog about this but somebody has to tell the world rather than have it show up on a Q&A page somewhere that nobody but an übergeek can find it.  How many of you have upgraded to Apple's new Lion OS and found that your GCC had gone MIA?  Or, worse yet, upgraded to a "new and improved" HD only to find that your Time Machine backup did not include the applications - or did not include all of your applications?

Fortunately, there is a way back that could take about thirty minutes or less, depending your internet connection.  You might have to RE-register as an Apple developer (as did I) and have to dig up your original Apple ID (as did I) from some old documentation somewhere (as did I) and then download OS X developer tools again (as did I).  Then, after having downloaded Xcode's latest and greatest, about 3GB, go over to the Xcode -> Preferences -> Components -> Downloads -> Command Line Tools and click on Install.  After another 158MB of installation you will have your gcc and man tools back.

Lion has to be one of Apple's biggest blunders in years, ranking up there with Lisa (almost - not quite) and Apple III in quality and how they have handled the publicity of their problems.  Maybe they will learn from this.  Maybe not.  Maybe they need to find another Steve Jobs to keep everyone in line the next time around.  He may not have been a great engineer, but he was a dreamer.

SDG
jco