14 DAY TRIAL // While some claim iPhone 3.0 Beta 3 can be hacked and installed on non-developer iPhones, the real developers being notified by Apple of the fresh 3.0 Beta have leaked the release notes for the Software Development Kit accompanying the new release.
As reported earlier today, developers registered with Apple received a notice that new beta builds of the iPhone OS 3.0 and iPhone SDK 3.0 were available for them. As revealed by a Modmyi forum poster, Apple has updated Xcode IDE, the Interface Builder, as well as Dashcode, with tons of tweaks, enhancements and code corrections.
A closer look at the changelog, as far as Xcode IDE 3.1 and later go, reveals that “the assistant interface has been completely revamped, making it easier to create 'New Project,' 'New Target,' and 'New File' resources,” according to Apple. “This release of Xcode also adds new assistant templates for both Mac OS X and iPhone OS applications,” the company points out, going by the aforementioned forum post.
“A new Overview toolbar item lets you see and set the project’s active Target, Configuration, Executable, Architecture, and SDK with a single control,” the release notes continue to unfold. Apple reportedly opened the door to setting a global “override” SDK as the Active SDK, in order to test the build of a dev's entire project against a different platform more easily.
“New interface shortcuts have been added to the Build Setting inspectors, making it easy to set the desired compiler, architectures, and SDK,” the changelog goes. “You can now add Libraries and Frameworks directly into the Target window and relate them to the project’s SDK.” Additionally, to support building with newer SDKs while targeting older OS versions, the Xcode UI now allows developers to designate a library or framework as weak-linked, the documentation reveals.
Interface Builder 3.1 adds the new drag & drop functionality, according to the source, allowing developers to re-parent objects with the normal drag gesture more easily. Apple has also enhanced the document outline view to support full drag re-ordering, while a new string table interface allows localizers to make quick text changes across documents. Also, Interface Builder now supports previewing the image resource content in Carbon controls. Lastly, the updated development tool generates XIB files that are more diff friendly, while retaining full backwards compatibility with Interface Builder 3.0.
As far as Dashcode is concerned, the application that facilitates the development of widgets can now be used by developers to create web aiPhone, as well as Dashboard widgets, the final lines of the release notes for iPhone SDK 3.0 Beta 3 reveal.