Simplifying new xcode / macOS projects using XCodeGen

[John Pope]

There's quite a few gotchas to ensure new projects are working / as well as older projects.

It seems there's a push to use either the jupyter notebook - or playgrounds - but for me having an xcode command line project is more appealing.

It can time consuming getting everything up and running if you want to quickly test stuff out.

So - with that background - I introduce XCodeGen -

brew install xcodegen

You detail a yml file with settings -/ compiler flags /  xcconfig.

Here we can capture - all these steps in a template.

 

debug.xcconfig

LD_RUNPATH_SEARCH_PATHS = "/Library/Developer/Toolchains/swift-latest/usr/lib/swift/macosx"

SWIFT_OPTIMIZATION_LEVEL = -O

OTHER_LDFLAGS =  -lpython

project.yml

name: SwiftTensorflow
	options:
	bundleIdPrefix: org.tensorflow.swift
	configFiles:
	Debug: debug.xcconfig
	Release: debug.xcconfig
	targets:
	SwiftTorch:
	type: tool
	platform: macOS
	deploymentTarget: "10.13"
	sources:
	- Sources
	dependencies:
	- framework: /Library/Developer/Toolchains/swift-latest/usr/lib/swift/macosx/libtensorflow_framework.so
	- framework: /Library/Developer/Toolchains/swift-latest/usr/lib/swift/macosx/libtensorflow.so
	- framework: libpython2.7.tbd
	SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS: macosx

and then all you have to do is run 

xcodegen generate

it will read the project.yml and spit out a project.

I have a ticket open to turn the UseModernBuildSystem to false / otherwise you will get TensorFlow not found error - 

(that means you still have to go to File > Project Settings > Build System > Legacy Build System) 

https://github.com/yonaskolb/XcodeGen/issues/470

[John Pope]

So it turns out you only need one file to bootstrap a new swift for tensorflow xcode project -

 just run XcodeGen to spit out new pre-configured xcode project.

As long as the symlink for swift-latest is up to date ongoingly - then this approach would be superior to getting up and running - rather than hardcoding to specific builds.