Question

I’m coming from a Objective-C/Xcode background.

I’m used to working with C projects already imported into XCode, but now I want to analyse an existing implementation of an algorithm I’m interested in integrating with my project.

Only that this project is written completely in C and has nothing to do with Objective-C/Xcode etc.

I’m not sure what is the best way to view a purely C project on Mac, so I installed NetBeans for C/C++.

The problem is that when I try to create a New Project on NetBeans and select C/C++ Project with Existing Sources it complains that

no make files or configure scripts were found 

in the root directory.. although it clearly has a Makefile.am

I know that the Balsa project is written for linux, but I’m not interested in building the binary I just want to look at the source code in a IDE kinda way (ie I can click on a function call and see where it’s implemented etc etc).

So in short my question is why isn’t NetBeans recognising my Makefile.am?

and just for reference here is the content of the Makefile.am

#intl dir needed for tarball --disable-nls build.
DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS=--disable-extra-mimeicons --without-gnome --without-html-widget
SUBDIRS = po sounds images doc libbalsa libinit_balsa src
# set tar in case it is not set by automake or make

man_MANS=balsa.1

pixmapdir = $(datadir)/pixmaps
pixmap_DATA = gnome-balsa2.png

desktopdir = $(datadir)/applications
desktop_in_files = balsa.desktop.in balsa-mailto-handler.desktop.in
desktop_DATA = balsa.desktop balsa-mailto-handler.desktop
@INTLTOOL_DESKTOP_RULE@

balsa_extra_dist =      \
    GNOME_Balsa.server.in   \
    HACKING         \
    balsa-mail-style.xml    \
    balsa-mail.lang     \
    balsa.1.in      \
    balsa.spec.in       \
    bootstrap.sh        \
    docs/mh-mail-HOWTO  \
    docs/pine2vcard     \
    docs/vconvert.awk   \
    $(desktop_in_files) \
    gnome-balsa2.png    \
    intltool-extract.in \
    intltool-merge.in   \
    intltool-update.in  \
    mkinstalldirs

if BUILD_WITH_G_D_U
balsa_g_d_u_extra_dist = gnome-doc-utils.make
endif

if !BUILD_WITH_UNIQUE
serverdir               = $(libdir)/bonobo/servers
server_in_files         = GNOME_Balsa.server
server_DATA             = $(server_in_files:.server.in=.server)

$(server_in_files): $(server_in_files).in
    sed -e "s|\@bindir\@|$(bindir)|" $< > $@

endif

EXTRA_DIST =            \
    $(balsa_extra_dist)     \
    $(balsa_g_d_u_extra_dist)

if BUILD_WITH_GTKSOURCEVIEW2
gtksourceviewdir = $(BALSA_DATA_PREFIX)/gtksourceview-2.0
gtksourceview_DATA = balsa-mail.lang        \
    balsa-mail-style.xml
endif

DISTCLEANFILES = $(desktop_DATA) $(server_DATA) \
    intltool-extract intltool-merge intltool-update \
    gnome-doc-utils.make


dist-hook: balsa.spec
    cp balsa.spec $(distdir)

@MAINT@RPM: balsa.spec
@MAINT@ rm -f *.rpm
@MAINT@ $(MAKE) distdir="$(PACKAGE)-@BALSA_VERSION@" dist
@MAINT@ cp $(top_srcdir)/rpm-po.patch $(top_builddir)/rpm-po.patch
@MAINT@ rpm -ta "./$(PACKAGE)-@BALSA_VERSION@.tar.gz"
@MAINT@ rm $(top_builddir)/rpm-po.patch
@MAINT@ -test -f "/usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/$(PACKAGE)-@VERSION@-@BALSA_RELEASE@.src.rpm" \
@MAINT@     && cp -f "/usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/$(PACKAGE)-@VERSION@-@BALSA_RELEASE@.src.rpm" .
@MAINT@ -for ping in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/* ; do \
@MAINT@     if test -d $$ping ; then \
@MAINT@         arch=`echo $$ping |sed -e 's,/.*/\([^/][^/]*\),\1,'` ; \
@MAINT@         f="$$ping/$(PACKAGE)-@VERSION@-@BALSA_RELEASE@.$$arch.rpm" ; \
@MAINT@         test -f $$f && cp -f $$f . ; \
@MAINT@     fi ; \
@MAINT@ done

@MAINT@snapshot:
@MAINT@ $(MAKE) distdir=$(PACKAGE)-`date +"%y%m%d"` dist

@MAINT@balsa-dcheck:
@MAINT@ $(MAKE) BALSA_DISTCHECK_HACK=yes distcheck

## to automatically rebuild aclocal.m4 if any of the macros in
## `macros/' change
bzdist: distdir
    @test -n "$(AMTAR)" || { echo "AMTAR undefined. Run make bzdist AMTAR=gtar"; false; }
    -chmod -R a+r $(distdir)
    $(AMTAR) chojf $(distdir).tar.bz2 $(distdir)
    -rm -rf $(distdir)

# macros are not used any more by current configure.in, see also
# post by Ildar Mulyukov to balsa-list, 2006.06.27
# ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I macros

---

UPDATE

I tried this answer.. but I got the following:

autoreconf --install
configure.in:250: warning: macro `AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT' not found in library
glibtoolize: putting auxiliary files in `.'.
glibtoolize: copying file `./ltmain.sh'
glibtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, `m4'.
glibtoolize: copying file `m4/libtool.m4'
glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltoptions.m4'
glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltsugar.m4'
glibtoolize: copying file `m4/ltversion.m4'
glibtoolize: copying file `m4/lt~obsolete.m4'
glibtoolize: Remember to add `LT_INIT' to configure.in.
glibtoolize: Consider adding `-I m4' to ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS in Makefile.am.
glibtoolize: `AC_PROG_RANLIB' is rendered obsolete by `LT_INIT'
configure.in:250: warning: macro `AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT' not found in library
configure.in:249: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_PROG_INTLTOOL
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.
configure.in:250: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT
configure.in:301: error: possibly undefined macro: AC_MSG_ERROR
autoreconf: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1

I’m looking into using the suggestions in the output..

Answer 1

As per abbood’s request…

Netbeans is not very good for C development. One approach would be to build an XCode project around the source base. The maintainers of the project may even accept the XCode project as a contribution.