14 DAY TRIAL // Apple released today the Xcode 9.4 IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Mac computers with support for the ClassKit framework in iOS 11.4 and various improvements and bug fixes.
The most prominent feature of the Xcode 9.4 release is ClassKit support, allowing application developers to build apps with the ClassKit framework designed by Apple and implemented in the iOS 11.4 software update for the development of educational apps that help teachers track the progress of their student progress, personalize their teaching instructions, as well as to assign activities to their students.
Xcode 9.4 also brings support for compiling asset catalogs that contain ARKit assets for iOS 11.3 and later, fixes a crash that occurred when adding a fetch request to Core Data models containing URI or UUID attributes, improves navigation of items with extensions in the Find navigator, and resolves an Instruments issue where the Symbols panel could appear empty when attempting to load a saved trace.
Signing and Provisioning improvements, more ARKit fixes
In addition to the changes mentioned above, Xcode 9.4 addresses two other asset catalog related issues, one that could cause the app to crash when dragging a .gif file into a Sticker Pack and another one that could cause the progress to get stuck when editing AR (Augmented Reality) assets in an Asset Catalog. Lastly, Xcode 9.4 fixes a problem in Signing and Provisioning that won't allow developers to export apps using Ad Hoc distribution.
All these changes bring an extra layer of stability and reliability to Apple's Xcode IDE, which now ships with the Swift 4.1 programming language and the iOS 11.4, macOS High Sierra 10.3.4, tvOS 11.4, and watchOS 4.3.1 SDKs (Software Development Kits) for developing iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps. Developers can download Xcode 9.4 right now from the Updates tab in the Mac App Store app on their Macs running at least macOS 10.13.