xcode 4

conor.hogan.2

3.99. Worth it, I suppose, but come on Apple. Altho VS is 400 odd dollars.

Well at least its 3.99 is closer to the actual worth of 4.99 dollars unlike their laptops.

john__long

You can download it for free, legitimately, if you know what you are doing.

I don't see why you're complaining.

conor.hogan.2

xcode 3 and all previous versions are free. 4 is not free unless you are a registered 99 dollars a year developer.

Unless you mean pirate it - but no im not doing that.

john__long

You pay to have your apps on the store.

It's just a side effect that, as a registered developer, you don't have to pay extra to get it.

So, from my point of view, it's free. Legitimately!

Out of curiosity, did you download it for the princely sum of €3.99?

conor.hogan.2

"if you know what your doing" != being a paid registered developer.

Yes, I did pay for it as Eclipse takes so long to compile and run and is generally just a mess.

fasty

I've been mucking about with this over the weekend and it's a bit improvement on XCode 4 although nowhere near as good as Visual Studio yet.

Things I like:

Workspaces - So nice to be able to group projects together unlike in XCode 3 et all where you could set up cross project references no problem, but managing each project was separate.

Integrated Interface Builder - Being able to command click items in a XIB and wire up actions and outlets directly in code... Oh yeah!

Improved Autocomplete/Refactor tools - This finally work properly with C++ which means much less time spent remembering function and parameter names.

I also like that you can configure each tab's layout independently.

I still have to try out the new OpenGL ES profiling tools they added to Instruments.

conor.hogan.2

Im not up to that level of coding so I dont get use out of IB etc.

The new errors are so annoying. You have to click out of your way to find them.

fasty

Oh I see.

Well, there's a bit of a learning curve initially but it is just a matter of connecting UI elements to things in code. Cocoa is all about actions and outlets and a strong separation of concerns via MVC.

You don't even need to know that much ObjC to get on with things.

conor.hogan.2

Ye, but to make any decent apps that do something original or useful knowing the code would be useful.

After using the new xcode it is better but the errors are really annoying me, the old way was better. Small problem considering the other improvements... but still.

fasty

Well, it's hard to make decent or original apps until you've coded some true stinkers. It's all part of the learning process. I don't think it's possible just just read all the docs, open XCode and make something amazing without slogging through it and writing crap. It's easier to learn things as you go.

In any case, writing UI based apps is much more fun than command line stuff. I always found it more motivating to see things happen on screen!

I don't really know what you mean about the errors to be honest.

conor.hogan.2

Well yes naturally.

My point is using IB etc before you know obj-c can be useful but I cba really using it before I learn some obj-c.

The new way xcode reports errors in your code - its much less prominent and harder to see and get more info on.