14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has rolled out a software update for Xcode, the company’s extensive developer toolset used for Mac and iOS coding by numerous third-party programmers.
According to the company headquartered at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif., “Xcode provides everything developers need to create great applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.”
“Xcode 4 has been streamlined to help you write better apps. It has unified user interface design, coding, testing, and debugging all within a single window. The Xcode IDE analyzes the details of your project to identify mistakes in both syntax and logic, it can even help fix your code for you,” Apple explains.
Now at version 4.2.1, Xcode is a more stable app, according to its makers. “This update addresses a number of stability issues,” including a fix for an issue where the "Convert to Objective-C ARC" operation would not complete.
The update further addresses a problem that resulted in no visible developer profiles in the Organizer, and deals with an erroneous locked file dialog appearing in the documentation window.
The patch supersedes the former Xcode 4.2 release, which means this update also includes SDKs for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and iOS 5; Storyboards, which allow developers to design multiple iOS screens, and define the segues among them; and Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which eliminates the need to manag retain/release manually.
Other key features include:
- iCloud entitlements are automatically enabled for Mac and iOS apps. - OpenGL ES Debugger graphically analyzes your OpenGL scene directly within the IDE. - Apple LLVM compiler supports C++11 features and the LLVM libc++ standard library. - Older iOS Simulators and device debugging symbols are downloaded on-demand. - Interface Builder support for Auto Layout and new Aqua controls such as NSPopover. - Project editor can validate and resolve out of date build settings.