Xcode 4+

Name: Xcode
Rating: 3.3 (891 reviews)
Author: Apple

Developer Tools

Apple

- 3.3 • 891 Ratings

- Free

Screenshots

Description

Xcode includes everything developers need to create great applications for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Xcode provides developers a unified workflow for user interface design, coding, testing, and debugging. The Xcode IDE combined with the Swift programming language make developing apps easy and fun.

Xcode includes the Xcode IDE, Swift and C/C++/Objective-C compilers, Instruments analysis tool, simulators, the latest SDKs, and hundreds of powerful features:

Innovative tools help you create great apps
• Swift is an intuitive programming language that is safe, fast, and modern
• SwiftUI is a revolutionary framework to create user interfaces with a declarative Swift syntax
• Playgrounds are a fun way to experiment and interact with Swift code
• View debugging shows a 3D stack of all your app's UI view layers at runtime
• Split editors in virtually unlimited ways, show previews, or choose an assistant to see related content
• Live issues display errors as you type, and Fix-its improve your code with just a click
• Source control navigator and service integrations help you manage code across a team

SwiftUI and Interface Builder make it easy to design your interface
• SwiftUI uses declarative Swift code that clearly describes your interface
• Design canvas graphically builds UI views using the library of controls and modifyers
• Preview SwiftUI code or UIKit interfaces in different screen sizes, orientations, and font sizes
• SwiftUI code is always in perfect sync with the graphical design canvas and previews
• Animations are built using simple commands that describe the action you want to see

Professional editor and debugger keep your code front and center
• Refactoring makes it easy to modify the structure of Swift, Objective-C, C, and C++ code
• Open Quickly instantly opens any file within your project
• Data tips and Quick Look can inspect a variable by hovering your mouse over code while debugging

Instruments for performance analysis
• Compare CPU, disk, memory, and GPU performance as graphical tracks over time
• Identify performance bottlenecks, then dive deep into the code to uncover the cause
• Analyze your app directly, or sample the entire system with very little overhead
• Create custom instruments with unique visualizations to analyze your own code and frameworks

To test or run applications on an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Apple Watch all you need is a free Apple ID. To submit your apps to the App Store you must be a member of the Apple Developer Program. Some features may require Internet access.

18 Sept 2023

Version 15.0

Xcode 15 includes Swift 5.9 and SDKs for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma.

• Swift macro support brings inline expansions and breakpoint debugging in the source editor
• Git staging helps craft your next commit without leaving your code
• String catalogs streamline localization with a single place to view and edit strings
• Bookmarks help organize your favorite locations and searches in your projects
• Test reports provide summary view, testing insights, and video playback for UI automation results
• OSLog offers a structured and customizable logging mechanism in the debug console
• Documentation Preview editor brings real-time preview for DocC content
• Archive workflows streamline distribution with simplified export and upload to TestFlight and the App Store

3.3 out of 5

891 Ratings

Great, but large

Xcode is a great development tool for mac and I use it a lot but comes at a price. Don't be fooled by the 12.6 GB in the size, you need a lot of storage for this app (the app itself takes 12.6 GB but there is a lot of other stuff). It took me around 40GB. I still think it's worth the storage, though. A lot of people say the application is super buggy, slow and crashes, I've used he app for 7 months and it is slow sometimes but usually not and it has never crashed on me (this is just for me though).

Miscellaneous show-stoppers constantly.

SPM cache constantly needs to be cleared and packages restored.

Syntax highlighting and autocompletion frequently break.

Derived Data folder regularly needs to be cleared (which incidentally instigates a package restore again).

SwiftUI previews routinely fail to update. It's essential to learn the "toggle canvas" and "refresh canvas" keyboard shortcuts when building with SwiftUI or you will spend inordinate amounts of time clicking buttons just to get the "live previews" to actually update.

And, lastly - this isn't a joke - sometimes the IDE's controls / labels are rendered upside down, so you have to learn to read upside down. When it happened the first time, I wasn't even a little surprised. Just Xcode things.

For every small step forward, there are a hundred steps backward. We finally got a declarative UI framework (SwiftUI) after struggling through the awful experience of Interface Builder for so many years, but even with a fresh start like that the Xcode team still just can't deliver a tolerable development experience.

I am not convinced that Apple actually uses Xcode internally to build their own software. If they do, I truly sympathise.

Existing functionality breaks all the time

Whenever a new iOS version is released your app that works absolutely fine on the previous version starts breaking very badly. At a minimum the new iOS version should atleast make sure that things that work fine on the previous version shouldn't break. Focus is always on releasing new features. Apple is not the lone developer using the tools, there is a community which is using these frameworks and tools so new features shouldn't be breaking existing features. Developers are scratching their heads all the time whenever a new iOS version is released and have to rework on the old features for months to fix the bugs.

The developer, Apple, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Identifiers
Usage Data
Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

Seller

Apple Pty Limited

Size

3.2 GB