July, 14, 2008 archives

to build connector/odbc 5.1 on mac os x leopard, the first thing you will need is xcode. then you will want to install a recent version of mysql (5.0 or 5.1, or even 6.0 if you are feeling adventurous).

to be able to build the gui setup library, you will need to install qt, but i have found it easiest to work with qt3, not the latest qt4. you can download the last release of that from trolltech’s ftp server — the file is called qt-mac-free-3.3.8.tar.gz. you will need to apply this patch to allow it to compile on leopard. i configure it with some options to eliminate stuff i don’t care about, and to build statically:

./configure -no-tablet -no-accessibility -no-cups -thread -static

with those prerequisites met, you can download the source for connector/odbc (using the release packages or svn for now, and we will migrate to bzr soon). i build with the gui enabled and with debugging symbols and no optimization:

./configure --with-qt-dir=/path/to/qt-mac-free-3.3.8 \
--with-extra-xlibs="-framework Carbon -framework QuickTime -lz" \
--enable-dmlink --with-debug CFLAGS="-O0 -g"

that should be enough to get the driver compiled. the test suite should mostly pass — there is one test in the my_basics suite that fails because of bugs in the iODBC implementation of SQLCancel, which i reported to them last november.

there is also one other test that fails right now, but we are working on that. it is a test for a workaround for a server bug, and it’s not clear whether the test case needs to be updated for the unicode-aware connector/odbc 5.1, or if the fix we applied in connector/odbc 3.51 didn’t get merged correctly into the 5.1 tree.

i have been blogging at the raw materials site about the process of getting the store put together. this week is one of those where a lot of things should start to fall into place, at least planning-wise.

there are other complicating factors that are going to make the end of the month really chaotic, but i am actually perversely looking forward to it. i finally splurged on a macbook pro so that i can be more flexible about where i work from, and not have to deal with some of the hardware issues that were annoying me.

whenever i see somebody’s list of essential mac applications, i am always a little surprised at how little overlap it has for me. now that i’ve mostly switched over the new macbook pro, here’s the list of applications that i have installed:

• acorn ($50): this is a nifty little image editing application. in the last few days, i have been using it to mock up shelving layouts for the store.
• bzr (free): this is the distributed version control system of choice at mysql these days.
• busysync: it would be nice to keep my google calender and ical in sync. after giving spanning sync a try for a bit, i am giving this a try as an alternative.
• delivery status: this dashboard widget is great for tracking the way-too-many packages that i get from amazon and other places.
• google notifier (no cost): now that i have switched almost entirely to using gmail, this is useful to let me know when i have new mail.
• linkinus ($20): i use this irc client for accessing the company chat server to connect with my mysql coworkers.
• menucalendarclock for ical (no cost or $20 for more features): i like this replacement for the date/time display in the upper-right of the menu bar, which drops down a full calendar, including upcoming ical events.
• myob accountedge ($300): this is for doing the books for the store and gallery.
• mysql (free): i have the standard mysql server package installed for testing.
• twitteriffic (ad-supported or $15): this is a not-too-obtrusive way of participating in twitter nonsense.
• virtualbox (free): i used parallels on my last machine, but i figured i would give sun’s own virtualization technology a spin. i use it to run a windows xp image for development using the microsoft toolchain and for accessing sun’s vpn.
• xcode (no cost): i don’t really use xcode itself, just many of the unix development tools that come along with it.

of the bundled software, i regularly use address book, ical, iphoto, itunes, mail (for my sun/mysql email), preview, safari, and terminal. and i use time machine, but i hope i don’t have to regularly use it.