Script to Kill iPhone Simulator if Running

Instructions to end the iPhone Simulator process if it is running.

As part of a CI setup, it is typical to have multiple iOS build jobs running on an individual build slave. As you can only have a single instance of the iPhone Simulator, you might find some of your jobs fail because another job has started the simulator, and you can't get access to it.

What seems like a sensible approach here, is to kill the simulator if it is already running, meaning your build job is guaranteed to start from a known state. If you attempt to close the simulator when it isn't running, however, you will end up with an error, along the lines of "No matching processes belonging to you were found". That's why you need to check if the process is running first, before attempting to close it.

The following script checks if the simulator is running, and if it is, ends the process. You can do this at the start of each build job.


#!/bin/sh
#kill simulator if running
killall -s "iPhone Simulator" &> /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    killall -m -KILL "iPhone Simulator"
fi




And in case you were wondering; this works for the iPad simulator too. The process is the same so the script above works unedited.


If you have any problems getting this going, drop me a comment below.

Rotating BlackBerry Playbook Simulator

I'll keep this one short and snappy.

If you want to change from the default 'landscape' mode, click and hold the mouse from the bottom right hand edge of the simulator (just anywhere in the black section will do) and drag towards the centre of the screen, and release.

Typing into Windows Phone 7 Emulator

Little tip that can save a ton of time for when typing using the emulator. The on-screen keyboard will jump up by default and allow you to use the mouse to click on the keys you are after. However, by default, it will not allow you to use your computer's keyboard to input text.

A very counter-intuitive way around this, is when the on-screen keyboard is shown on the emulator, simply hit the PAGE UP button on your machine's keyboard. This will dismiss the keyboard and let you type at full speed.

And yes, PAGE DOWN will allow you to restore the on-screen keyboard.

Playstation 1 Emulator on Android Tablet

Recently I got my tablet (Motorola Xoom) playing old Playstation 1 games, using my PS3 controller as an input device. Please do not underestimate how happy I was to see Final Fantasy VII up and running!

In this post, I'll detail the steps needed to get an emulator installed, how to download the games and how to convert the games into a suitable format and what you'll need to use your PS3 controller as input device should you desire such a thing. The emulator has a small cost (currently it is £2.61 or $4.10)

Be warned, it isn't all that straight forward so a certain amount of geekery is recommended! If you have any problems, just ask in the comments section.

Also, be warned, emulators and the games you play on emulators (called ROMs) can be a bit of a grey area, legally speaking. My best understanding is that you have the best shot at staying legal if you own the console you are emulating and own the games that are being emulated. I'm no lawyer by any means, so seek your own legal advice and conscience before diving straight in.