These resources provide information related to compiling and building applications, and measuring performance:
Xcode User Guide contains all the instructions needed to compile and debug any type of Xcode project (C, C++, Objective C, Java, AppleScript, resource, nib files, and so forth).
GCC Porting Guide provides advice for how to modify your code in ways that make it more compatible with GCC 4.0.
GNU C/C++/Objective-C 4.0.1 Compiler User Guide provides details about the GCC implementation. Xcode uses the GNU compiler collection (GCC) to compile code.
The assembler (as) used by Xcode supports AT&T System V/386 assembler syntax in order to maintain compatibility with the output from GCC. The AT&T syntax is quite different from Intel syntax. The major differences are discussed in the GNU documentation.
C++ Runtime Environment Programming Guide provides information on the GCC 4.0 shared C++ runtime that is available in Panther 10.3.9 and later.
Porting UNIX/Linux Applications to Mac OS X. Developers porting from UNIX and Linux applications who want to compile a universal binary, will want to read the section Compiling for Multiple Architectures.
Kernel Extension Programming Topics contains information about debugging KEXTs on Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Performance tools. Shark, MallocDebug, ObjectAlloc, Sampler, Quartz Debug, Thread Viewer, and other Apple-developed tools (some command-line, others use a GUI) are in the /Developer directory. Command-line performance tools are in the /usr/bin directory.
Code Size Performance Guidelines and Code Speed Performance Guidelines discuss optimization strategies for a Mach-O executable.
Last updated: 2007-02-26