Project Builder

Project Builder
Developer(s)NeXT, Apple Inc.
Initial release3.0 / September 8, 1992; 32 years ago (1992-09-08)[1]
Final release
2.1 / December 1, 2002; 21 years ago (2002-12-01)[2]
Operating systemNeXTSTEP, macOS
TypeIntegrated development environment (IDE)
LicenseFreeware with open-source components

Project Builder was an integrated development environment (IDE) originally developed by NeXT for version 3 of the NeXTSTEP operating system by separating out the code editing parts of Interface Builder into its own application.[1]

After Apple Computer purchased NeXT and turned NeXTSTEP into the Mac OS X operating system, the NeXTSTEP version of Project Builder became ProjectBuilderWO (maintained only for WebObjects development). Apple created a new Project Builder from scratch for software development with the first version being introduced with Developer Preview 4 of Mac OS X.[3] This version of Project Builder, informally dubbed PBX.[4] was distributed with the first few versions of Mac OS X but with the release of Mac OS X v10.3 it was redesigned, reintegrated with Interface Builder and rebranded as Xcode.[5][6][7]

Before OS X, developers could use Macintosh Programmer's Workshop or CodeWarrior to develop Macintosh applications.

GNUstep's ProjectCenter IDE is a rough workalike of the original NextStep design; additional functionality is provided by ProjectManager, a 3rd-party GNUstep IDE meant for greater usability.

  1. ^ a b Garfinkel, Simson; Mahoney, Michael (1993). "NeXTSTEP Programming, Step One: Object-Oriented Applications" (PDF). Computers in Physics. 7 (3): 287. Bibcode:1993ComPh...7..287G. doi:10.1063/1.4823176.
  2. ^ "OS X December 2002 Developer Tools". OSNews. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  3. ^ John Siracusa (May 24, 2000). "Mac OS X DP4". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  4. ^ Summermatter, Paul R. (March 25, 2001). "Getting started PB -> PBX". Cocoabuilder. Archived from the original on 2015-04-29.
  5. ^ Dippery, Michael (2 June 2015). Professional Swift. John Wiley & Sons. p. 36. ISBN 9781119016779. Xcode is based on Project Builder, an IDE you use to write programs for the NeXTSTEP operating system, the forerunner of Mac OS X
  6. ^ Wentk, Richard (June 2011). Xcode 4. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. ISBN 9781118108260. A free copy of Project Builder was bundled with every copy of OS X
  7. ^ "OS X's ten most innovative features". Macworld. Sep 13, 2010. ...Included in the package was an IDE—Project Builder—that was a tweaked version of the IDE that came with NeXT, the OS whose acquisition laid much of the foundation for OS X. In 2003, Project Builder became the now familiar Xcode...