Thursday, March 10, 2011

XCode 4 Pre Review

All right lads, here it is, the long awaited XCode 4. A huge improvement in XCode since Apple choose to adopt single window system. It is definitely BE-A-U-TI-FUL! But is it any good?

I've been dealing with it for a few hours so I really cant go through a depth review right now but here is what you need to know:

1. the installing process is ridiculously ridiculous. I downloaded the installer, about 4 GB. And when I start installing the program, it kept failing for a reason too hard to be shown as a dialog box: need more space! Instead it asked me to go to a hidden folder /var/log/install.log. Really Apple? So ok I save a few space in my MBP, around 8 Giga. And no, it still wont work! I'm not sure why it needed more than that. So ok, I save a little bit more: move some pics, delete some p*rn ;p and i got 10 GB of free space. The installer ran but then it stop in the middle of the installation. And yes... it's another 'need more space' problem! Finally I save about 12 Giga and it works. Im not sure why they need such amount of space, but it backed up my /Developer folder (and change it to /Developer_old). Im not sure why. So people easily downgrade?

2. It requires App Store installed, and it requires Snow Leopard. I guess the older cat does not have any luck in testing this product.

3. No support (yet?) on GCC 4.0. Apparently Apple chose to close their ears. GCC 4.2 is too buggy! Stop forcing people to use those... cursed compiler! Most huge C++ based source code might rely heavily on this, so be careful. Dont uninstall your XCode 3 yet! But I guess once you successfully run your program on 4.2, the late process wouldn't be a problem.

4. You're not forced to use the single window system. If you're that hyped to use multi-window + expose, XCode 4 is still a possible answer. But I really really really really like the automated side-by-side editor in its single window. It automatically switch the right editor to the implementation of header in the left editor, vica versa.

5. The comfortable button-combination Cmd-Enter is gone! Im not sure... why. Just another stupid decision I guess.

6. The File Explorer can be intimidating but once you know what happened, it rocks! \m/

7. The debugger are now part of the single window, very much alike VS. And its not comfortable for me (yet)!

There you go. Depth reviews will come in a few moment!  Enjoy XCoding!

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