Whats newxcode

Contents

What’s New in Xcode 5
Highlights Found in Xcode 4.5 5
Compatibility 5
Developer Resources 6
About SDKs and the iOS Simulator 6
Installation 7
New Features in Xcode by Release 7
See Also 8

New Features in Xcode 4.5 9
LLVM 4.0 Compiler 10
Objective-C Language Features 10
Improved Support for the C++11 Standard 10
Improvements to the Static Analyzer 11
New Interface Builder Support for AppKit Features 11
Scene Kit Editor 11
Code Completion Enhancements 12
Find and Search Additions 12
Source Editor Jump Bar Enhanced 12
Gesture Support Additions for Track Pad Use 13
Notification Enhancement 13

New Features in Xcode 4.3.3 14
New Features in Xcode 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 15
The Xcode 4.3 Toolset Is Repackaged as a Single App 16
Complementary Tools Launch from Within Xcode 16
Command-Line Tools Are Optional 17
/Developer No Longer Exists 17
Auto Layout Is Now the Default for All New Cocoa Projects 20

2012-09-19 | © 2012 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2

Automatic Reference Counting 21
Default Compiler 21
Storyboarding 22
OpenGL ES Frame Capture 26
Location Simulation 35
Application Data Management 36
Downloading Components 36

Project Modernization 38
Default Compiler 38
Custom Behaviors 39
Preprocessor or Assembly Output 39
Autolayout 39
Build Setting Values in Scheme Pre- and Post-Action Scripts 40
OS X Application Sandbox 40
Debugger Disassembly 41
Git Remote Management 41
In-Place Snapshot Restoration 41
Internal Project Files in Repositories 42
Scheme and Run-Destination Selection 42
Key Bindings for Closing a Project or a Workspace 42
Interface Builder Plug-in Support 42

Document Revision History 44


3

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6

Open Developer Tool menu in Xcode 4.3 16
Adding bundled developer tools to the Dock 17
Components tab of the Downloads preferences panel 17
Option to remove older versions of Xcode 18
Downloads for Apple Developers webpage 19
Use Auto Layout option 20

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15

The Use Storyboard option 22
View controllers in the object library 23
Creating a storyboard 24
Attributes inspector for a segue 25
Storyboard for an iOS Application 26
Enabling OpenGL ES frame debugging 27
Frame capture button 28
OpenGL ES frame capture 29
Controls for stepping through draw calls 30
Shortcut menu 31
Wireframe view 32
Frame capture with two Assistant panes 33
Vertex Array Object detail 34
Choosing a location in the scheme editor 35
Choosing a location in the debug bar 36


4

What’s New in Xcode

Xcode is the complete developer toolset used to create applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The Xcode
development environment bundles the Instruments analysis tool, iOS Simulator, and OS frameworks in the
form of iOS SDKs and OS X SDKs.
Xcode 4.5 adds support for iOS 6.0 as well as other enhancements to the toolset.

Highlights Found in Xcode 4.5
Xcode 4.5 adds support for development with iOS 6 SDK and includes these additional features:
●

LLDB is now the default debugger.

●

LLDB supports hardware watchpoints on iOS devices.

●

OpenGL debugging and performance analysis for iOS apps is integrated into Xcode.

●

Auto Layout is supported for iOS 6.

Xcode 4.5 also extends new features released in Xcode 4.4 as listed below:
●

Improved localization workflow using base language .xib files now supports OS X 10.8 in addition to iOS
Storyboards.

●

Objective-C literals in NSArray and NSDictionary classes are supported for iOS 6.0.

●

Support for subscripting using '[ ]' syntax with Objective-C container objects are supported for iOS 6.0.

●

Compatibility with the C++11 standard is improved with added support for lambda expressions.

Note: The LLVM GCC compiler does not include the latest Objective-C and C++11 features. It is
highly recommended that you migrate your project to use the default Apple LLVM compiler.

Compatibility
Xcode 4.5 requires a Mac running OS X v10.7 or OS X v10.8, and includes iOS 6 SDK and OS X 10.8 SDK. To
develop apps targeting prior versions of iOS or OS X, see “About SDKs and the iOS Simulator” (page 6).


5

Developer Resources

Developer Resources
The iOS and Mac Developer Programs provide access to the App Store, additional support and documentation,
and provisioning resources to enable testing and deployment on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad device. For
more information visit:
iOS: http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/
Mac: http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac/
For discussions about any Apple developer software, including prerelease products, visit the Apple Developer
Forums at http://devforums.apple.com/.
For the latest security information visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.
For more detailed information please see the complete Xcode release notes, available from the Help menu.

About SDKs and the iOS Simulator
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of frameworks (libraries, headers, and resources) that represent
the API for a specific iOS or OS X version. Most of the functionality your app gets from an SDK is actually
provided by the host operating system, which makes the right Base SDK and OS Deployment Target settings
critical for app compatibility. Xcode automates this configuration for you, building with the latest SDK and
targeting the latest OS by default.
If your app doesn’t require the latest OS features, you can configure it to run on a previous version of iOS or
OS X version via the OS Deployment Target option in the Xcode Project settings. If your project was created
in a much older version of Xcode, you can let Xcode update your project. When you do, Xcode automatically
sets the Base SDK to Latest in your build settings. You use the Xcode Project Modernization feature to perform
this task, see the description in “Project Modernization” (page 38) for more details.
For iOS, Xcode automatically switches between the iOS Simulator SDK and the device SDK, depending on
where you intend to run your app. You don’t need to select these settings manually.


6

Installation

Note: For final qualification on a specific version of iOS, you must test on a device.

Installation
You obtain Xcode 4.5 from the Mac App Store, it is a free download that installs directly into the Applications
folder. By default, Xcode downloads developer documentation in the background for offline reading, and
automatically downloads documentation updates as well. This behavior can be changed after installation via
the Documentation tab of the Downloads preferences pane.
Xcode 4.5 can coexist on a Mac with previous versions of Xcode.

New Features in Xcode by Release
Xcode 4.5 adds support for development on iOS v6.0.
Relevant Chapter: “New Features in Xcode 4.5” (page 9)
Xcode 4.4 adds support for new Objective-C language features and supports development on OS X v10.8
Mountain Lion.
Xcode 4.3.3 adds support for new features in OS X Lion v10.7.4.
Relevant Chapter: “New Features in Xcode 4.3.3” (page 14)
Xcode 4.3.1 and Xcode 4.3.2 add enhancements to Xcode installation, improves operations and workflow,
and support development for iOS v5.1.
Relevant Chapter: “New Features in Xcode 4.3.1 and 4.3.2” (page 15)
Xcode 4.3 adds enhancements to Xcode installation, improves operations and workflow, and support
development for iOS v5.0.
Xcode 4.2 adds enhancements to the features and workflow of Xcode 4.1 to support development for iOS
v5.0.


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See Also

Xcode 4.1 adds enhancements to the features and workflow of Xcode 4.0 and, when running on OS X Lion,
implements user interface features standard in OS X Lion such as full-screen windows.
Relevant Chapter: “New Features in Xcode 4.1 ” (page 38)

See Also
For short tutorials that walk you through some of the most commonly used features of Xcode, see Xcode Quick
Start Guide .
To learn about using Xcode 4 in detail, see Xcode 4 User Guide .
To learn more about the tasks and workflow required to develop and distribute OS X or iOS apps, see:
●

Tools Workflow Guide for iOS

●

Tools Workflow Guide for Mac


8

New Features in Xcode 4.5

Xcode 4.5 adds support for development with iOS 6 SDK and includes these additional features:
●

LLDB is now the default debugger.

●

LLDB supports hardware watchpoints on iOS devices.

●

OpenGL debugging and performance analysis for iOS apps is integrated into Xcode.

●

Auto Layout is supported for iOS 6.

Xcode 4.5 also extends new features released in Xcode 4.4 as listed below:
●

Improved localization workflow using base language .xib files now supports OS X 10.8 in addition to iOS
Storyboards.

●

Objective-C literals in NSArray and NSDictionary classes are supported for iOS 6.0.

●

Support for subscripting using '[ ]' syntax with Objective-C container objects are supported for iOS 6.0.

●

Compatibility with the C++11 standard is improved with added support for lambda expressions.

Note: Check the Documentation tab of the Downloads preferences pane to be sure that Xcode
always has the latest documentation.


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Xcode 4.4 adds features to support OS X v10.8 and iOS 5.1 as well as other enhancements to the toolset.
Note: Check the Documentation tab of the Downloads preferences pane to be sure that Xcode
always has the latest documentation.

LLVM 4.0 Compiler
Xcode includes an updated LLVM Compiler version 4.0 with the following enhancements.

Objective-C Language Features
●

●

●

Literals syntax is supported for NSArray, NSDictionary, and NSNumber objects, using the same ‘@’
operator as for NSString literals.
Subscripting is enabled for Objective-C containers, including NSDictionary and NSArray. Use the ‘[
]’ syntax convention.
Objective-C @properties are synthesized by default when not explicitly implemented.

Xcode supports backward deployment of code that uses the literal syntax and object subscripting to OS X
v10.7 and later, you must use the OS X v10.8 SDK to make these features available. The default @synthesize
feature requires no special SDK or runtime support.
Note: iOS development using literal syntax and object subscripting is not yet implemented.

Improved Support for the C++11 Standard
●

Lambda expressions are allowed and permit interoperability with blocks-based APIs in Objective-C++.

●

Generalized initializer lists are supported.

●

Generalized constant expressions (constexpr) are supported.


10

Improvements to the Static Analyzer

Improvements to the Static Analyzer
Xcode’s built-in source code analysis tool, launched with the Analyze command in the Product menu, is
enhanced for common security mistakes in API and malloc usages.
●

●

The static analyzer engine can find complicated bugs that span function boundaries using interprocedural
analysis.
More exhaustive memory checks are made to malloc-related memory management and the detection
of insecure API uses.

New Interface Builder Support for AppKit Features
Xcode’s Interface Builder includes support for new AppKit features.
●

Autolocalization

●

Improved trackpad API

●

Auto Layout improvements

●

CoreUI-based UI customization

●

NSView API

●

Paging control

●

The addition of Page Control View

Note: The Interface Builder features listed above require OS X v10.8 support.

Scene Kit Editor
Xcode 4.4 introduces a viewer and editor for 3D scene files, included in a project as Collada DAE documents,
to support use of the Scene Kit API. The Scene Kit editor allows you to preview and fine-tune the 3D scenes,
and play embedded animations. You can also inspect 3D scenes for information to use in your source code.
The Scene Kit editor is invoked by selecting a DAE file in the project navigator.


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Code Completion Enhancements

Note: The Scene Kit editor requires OS X v10.8 or later.

Code Completion Enhancements
Code completion now has an integrated form of QuickHelp with a short description of each item in the list
based on the documentation or the specific code snippet. Integrated within the code completion window, it
is displayed in a section either above or below the code completion list.
Xcode can offer symbols during code completion that haven't yet been included or imported in the current
file (the framework was added to the project, but the #import was not included in the file). When possible,
Xcode will use umbrella headers for auto import completions and will denote not-yet-linked symbols with a
#error indicating which binary needs to be linked. It is a known limitation that auto import completions are
available only for symbols that are already visible in at least one file in the current workspace. If necessary, this
can be turned off in the Text Editing preferences.

Find and Search Additions
Find and Search have been enhanced with three new capabilities:
●

●

●

The Find Bar and Search Navigator have added support for find patterns as a simpler alternative to regular
expressions. In the search field, click the magnifying glass icon and select Insert Pattern.
The Find Navigator now supports searching for references to indexed symbols. Choose Symbolic from the
Find Navigator's Style pop-up menu. This form of search performs significantly faster than textual searches
and excludes results from comments and nonsource files.
Xcode can show the callers and callees of the current function or method. This function is accessed from
the Show Related Items menu, or by using the Assistant editor and selecting Callers or Callees in the jump
bar pop-up menu.

Source Editor Jump Bar Enhanced
The source editor jump bar pop-up menu now lists TODO and #pragma mark comments that are inside
methods and functions.


12

Gesture Support Additions for Track Pad Use

Gesture Support Additions for Track Pad Use
Pinch-to-zoom and two-finger-double-tap change the zoom level in the following editors and viewers:
●

User Interface editor

●

Hex editor

●

Core Data Model editor

●

Quicklook editor

●

OpenGL ES viewers

●

Instruments track view

Three-finger-single-tap invokes QuickHelp.
Two-finger-swipe moves back and forth in the Xcode history.

Notification Enhancement
Xcode 4.4 allows the OS X v10.8 systemwide notification system to display build and warning notifications.


13

New Features in Xcode 4.3.3

Xcode 4.3.3 provides an update to the included OS X SDK, which in turn supports new OS X v10.7.4 APIs.
Otherwise, Xcode 4.3.3 offers no new features.
See “New Features in Xcode 4.3” (page 16) for details about other features introduced in Xcode 4.3.


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New Features in Xcode 4.3.1 and 4.3.2

Xcode 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 add support for iOS 5.1 and include the new features of Xcode 4.3.
Note: The Xcode 4.3.2 release is a maintenance release responding to reported developer issues
and Apple qualification testing.

See “New Features in Xcode 4.3” (page 16) for details on Xcode 4.3.


15


Xcode 4.3 adds features to support iOS 5.0 and OS X v10.7, as well as other enhancements to the toolset.

The Xcode 4.3 Toolset Is Repackaged as a Single App
This version of Xcode is distributed as a single application bundle, Xcode.app, installed through the Mac App
Store directly to the Applications folder. Installing Xcode 4.3 no longer requires the Install Xcode application.
These changes make it easier for you to install and update Xcode using the standard Mac App Store mechanism.

Complementary Tools Launch from Within Xcode
The Xcode 4.3 installation reorganizes other key development tools and allows launching them using the
Xcode > Open Developer Tool menu (Figure 1).
Figure 1

Open Developer Tool menu in Xcode 4.3


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For your convenience, you can also add these tools to the Dock to allow direct access, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2

Adding bundled developer tools to the Dock

Command-Line Tools Are Optional
The command-line tools are not bundled with Xcode 4.3 by default. Instead, they can be installed optionally
using the Components tab of the Downloads preferences panel as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3

Components tab of the Downloads preferences panel

/Developer No Longer Exists
The simplification afforded by repackaging Xcode 4.3 as a single app bundle eliminates the need for the
/Developer directory containing prior versions of Xcode. As a result, the Install Xcode application and the
uninstall-devtools command line script are also no longer needed.


17


Note: The first time you run Xcode 4.3, you are prompted with a dialog to delete the Install Xcode
application from the Applications directory if one is resident, and to remove any older installation
of Xcode (Figure 4). These actions are optional, Xcode 4.3 can co-exist with older installations of
Xcode on the same Mac. Some operations may require an administrator password to enable them
if you switch from one version of Xcode to another.
Figure 4

Option to remove older versions of Xcode

If you choose not to delete these items on the first launch of Xcode 4.3, you can remove the
/Developer folder and the Install Xcode application by dragging them to the Trash at any time.
Since the /Developer directory no longer exists with Xcode 4.3, some other parts of prior Xcode installations
have moved.
Sample Code. The three sample projects previously available in /Developer/Examples—TextEdit, Sketch
and CircleView—have been moved to the Sample Code sections of the iOS and OS X Developer Libraries at
developer.apple.com.
Plug-ins, templates and other sub-components. Any path for component additions to developer tools that
was previously found in a subdirectory of /Developer is now going to be located internal to the Xcode 4.3
application bundle. For example, Instruments templates—files such as


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Automation.tracetemplate—previously located in the /Developer subdirectory at
/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/… is now stored in a similar path inside
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/….

Other standalone utility applications and add-on technologies. Several additional tools are no longer part
of the default Xcode installation, they are now downloadable as separate packages. The More Developer Tools
menu command (Figure 5) provides a direct jump to developer.apple.com/downloads in Safari where these
development tools can be found.
Figure 5

Downloads for Apple Developers webpage

The available downloads include:
●

Audio tools: AULab, HALLab, and audio utility source code

●

Accessibility tools: Accessibility Inspector, Accessibility Verifier

●

Hardware IO tools: Bluetooth tools, IORegistryExplorer, USB Prober

●

Graphics tools: CI Filter Browser Widget, OpenGL tools, Pixie, Quartz Debug, Quartz Composer tools

●

Auxiliary tools: Clipboard Viewer, CrashReporterPrefs, Help Indexer, PackageMaker, Speech tools, SleepX

●

Dashcode: Dashcode application


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Auto Layout Is Now the Default for All New Cocoa Projects

Auto Layout Is Now the Default for All New Cocoa Projects
New Cocoa projects created in Xcode 4.3 now use Interface Builder’s Auto Layout feature by default. It can be
disabled by deselecting an option in the Interface Builder design canvas (Figure 6):
Figure 6

Use Auto Layout option


20


Xcode 4.2 adds features to support iOS 5 as well as other enhancements to the application.
This article describes the new features in Xcode 4.2.

Automatic Reference Counting
Xcode 4.2 includes a menu item to convert targets to use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which automates
memory management for Objective-C objects. ARC makes memory management much easier, greatly reducing
the chance that your program will have memory leaks. First, Xcode reviews your project to determine whether
there are items that cannot be converted (and that you must therefore change manually). Then, Xcode rewrites
your source code to use ARC.
To initiate the process, enable Continue building after errors in the General Preferences pane, then choose
Edit > Refactor > Convert to Objective-C ARC. The targets that you convert are updated to build using the
Apple LLVM compiler. Xcode attempts to build your target and to determine what changes must be made to
use ARC. If it finds any issues that prevent conversion, Xcode displays a dialog directing you to review the
errors in the Issue navigator. After you correct the errors, choose the Convert to Objective-C Automatic Reference
Counting menu item again to restart the ARC-conversion workflow.
When Xcode successfully builds your application, it takes a snapshot of the current code so that you can revert
later if you want to. Then Xcode displays a preview dialog showing the changes it’s going to make. When you
accept the changes, Xcode converts your code to use ARC.
For more information on ARC, see Transitioning to ARC Release Notes .

Default Compiler
The default compiler for iOS development in Xcode 4.2 is LLVM 3.0. Compared with the GCC compiler that was
the default in Xcode 4.0 and the LLVM-GCC compiler in Xcode 4.1, LLVM provides better code generation and
optimization than GCC, along with newer language support than LLVM-GCC, including support for ARC in
Objective-C and for the new C++ standard, C++0x.


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Storyboarding

Storyboarding
In Xcode 4.2, the Interface Builder user interface for iOS applications is based on the storyboarding of view
controllers. Storyboarding enables you to use Interface Builder to specify not only all the screens in your
application, but the transitions between them and the controls used to trigger the transitions. Thus you can
lay out every possible path through your application graphically, greatly reducing the amount of code you
need to write for a complex multiscreen application.
To create a project that uses view controllers, choose File > New > New Project and select the Use Storyboard
checkbox in the options dialog (Figure 1).
Figure 1

The Use Storyboard option


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Storyboarding

You start with a view controller object that represents your first scene (the initial view controller ). To get view
controllers for your storyboard, select Objects and Controllers from the Object library (Figure 2) and drag the
view controllers you want onto the canvas. Each view controller manages a single scene. On the iPhone, each
scene represents the contents of a single screen. For iPad applications, a screen can be composed of the
contents of more than one scene.
Figure 2

View controllers in the object library

To storyboard your application, you link each object that’s in a view controller and that can cause a change in
the display, to another view controller that configures and implements the new scene (Figure 3). As you can
see in the figure, the initial view controller has a green outline. You link the various view controllers in Interface


23

Storyboarding

Builder by Control-dragging between controls and view controllers. You can drag from any control that has
an output to the header of any other view controller. You can add controls and views to each view controller’s
view just as you would add objects to a window or a view in the nib file of an Xcode 3 or Xcode 4.0 application.
Figure 3

Creating a storyboard


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Storyboarding

The arrows between view controllers represent the segues from one scene to another. To configure a segue—for
example, to specify the kind of transition to use between scenes—click the arrow and open the Attributes
inspector (Figure 4). To define a custom transition, select Custom for the style of the segue and fill in the name
of your custom segue class. Standard segue classes are in UIKit (see UIKit Framework Reference ). For information
about implementing the methods in the UIViewController class, see UIViewController Class Reference .
Figure 4

Attributes inspector for a segue


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OpenGL ES Frame Capture

The result is a storyboard that graphically represents every screen of your application and the flow of control
among the screens. Double-click the canvas to zoom out to see the entire storyboard (Figure 5).
Figure 5

Storyboard for an iOS Application

The debugging experience has been updated to include a new workflow for debugging iOS OpenGL ES
applications. When frame capture is enabled in the scheme for the application, the debug bar provides a new
control for entering the OpenGL ES frame debugging view.


26


To enable this feature, you must run the application on a device and the device must be running iOS 5.0 or
later. Set the destination in the scheme menu to an iOS device and choose Edit Scheme from the scheme
selector in the toolbar. Select the Run action, click the Options tab, and select the OpenGL ES Enable Frame
Capture checkbox (Figure 6).
Figure 6

Enabling OpenGL ES frame debugging


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When you build and run your OpenGL ES application, the debug bar includes a frame capture button (Figure
7). Click that button to capture a frame.
Figure 7

Frame capture button

You can use Xcode 4.2 to:
●

Inspect OpenGL ES state information.

●

Introspect OpenGL ES objects such as view textures and shaders.

●

Step through draw calls and watch the changes with each call.

●

Step through the state calls that precede each draw call to see exactly how the image is constructed.


28


Figure 8 shows a captured frame. The debug navigator has a list of every draw call and state call associated
with that frame. The buffers associated with the frame are shown in the editor pane, and the state information
is shown in the debug pane.
Figure 8

OpenGL ES frame capture


29


You can step through draw calls in the debug navigator, or by using the double arrows and slider in the debug
bar (Figure 9).
Figure 9

Controls for stepping through draw calls


30


When you use the draw call arrows or slider, you can have Xcode select the stepped-to draw call in the debug
navigator. To do so, Control-click below the captured frame and choose Reveal in Debug Navigator from the
shortcut menu (Figure 10).
Figure 10

Shortcut menu


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You can also use the shortcut menu to toggle between a standard view of the drawing and a wireframe view
(Figure 11). The wireframe view highlights the element being drawn by the selected draw call.
Figure 11

Wireframe view


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Open the Assistant editor to see the objects associated with the captured frame. In the Assistant editor you
can choose to see all the objects, only bound objects, or the stack. Open a second Assistant editor pane to see
both the objects and the stack for the frame at the same time (Figure 12).
Figure 12

Frame capture with two Assistant panes


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Double-click an object in the Assistant editor to see details about that object. For example, if you double-click
a texture object, you can see the texture in detail. Figure 13 shows the data in a vertex array (VAO) object.
Figure 13

Vertex Array Object detail


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Location Simulation

Location Simulation
In Xcode 4.0 and 4.1, you could simulate only the current location in your application. As of Xcode 4.2, you can
simulate locations other than your current location in iOS applications that use Core Location. To set a location,
choose Edit Scheme from the scheme selector in the toolbar, select the Run action, and click the Options tab.
You can then choose a location from the Location menu (Figure 14).
Figure 14

Choosing a location in the scheme editor


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Application Data Management

In addition, if you are running an application for iOS 5.0 or later that uses Core Location, the debug bar has
the same location drop-down menu (Figure 15).
Figure 15

Choosing a location in the debug bar

Application Data Management
In Xcode 4.2, you can save and restore application data files on a simulator or iOS device when debugging or
running unit tests.

Downloading Components
To improve download time and installation efficiency with Xcode 4.2, the standard Xcode installer excludes
some large tool components, such as older simulators, that are not essential to the current development toolset.
Xcode presents you with a dialog when the simulator needs to be downloaded. Documentation preferences


36

Downloading Components

has consequently been replaced with Downloads preferences, including both documentation and components
(simulators and SDKs). Using the Components tab of the Downloads preferences pane, you can view a description
of each available component, download and install it.


37


Xcode 4.1 adds features to support OS X v10.7 Lion as well as other enhancements to the application.
This article describes the new features in Xcode 4.1. For details on how to use these features, see Xcode 4 User
Guide .

Project Modernization
When you open a project, Xcode 4 evaluates it to see whether there are any settings that should be updated.
This feature provides an easy way to make sure your projects conform to the latest SDKs and best practices.
Open the Issue navigator to see whether anything in your project needs to be updated. You can also select
the project in the project navigator and choose Editor > Validate Settings.
If the Issue navigator lists modernization issues, click the issue to see a dialog that explains the updates that
should be made and lets you perform any or all of them.
After you have clicked Perform Changes, whether you choose to make all the changes or not, Xcode does not
show the warning again. To rerun the check, select your project in the Project navigator and choose Validate
Settings from the Editor menu.

Default Compiler
The default compiler for iOS development in Xcode 4.1 is LLVM-GCC 4.2. Compared with the GCC compiler
that was the default in Xcode 4.0, LLVM-GCC provides better code generation and optimization than GCC,
while being exactly source compatible with GCC 4.2.


38

Custom Behaviors

Custom Behaviors
The Behaviors preferences pane lets you specify what should happen when a variety of events occur. Xcode
4.1 introduces new Behavior options, such as running a script, collapsing and expanding the navigator and
utilities panes and the toolbar, or switching to Full Screen mode. This feature greatly expands the power of
Xcode behaviors, enabling Xcode to run a script or perform a variety of actions in response to a large number
of triggers.
You can also can design custom behaviors by defining behaviors that are triggered by menu items or their key
equivalents. This feature allows you to create behaviors that you can invoke at any time. Once you’ve created
a behavior, it appears in the Xcode > Behaviors menu.
To assign key equivalents to custom behaviors, in the Key Bindings preferences pane, select the Customized
tab to find the behavior for which you want to assign a key equivalent.

Preprocessor or Assembly Output
Xcode 4.1 introduces commands in the Product > Generate Output menu to process source files and generate
the preprocessed output or assembly output.
The preprocessor evaluates directives in your source code (instructions starting with the pound sign (#) such
as includes, defines, and conditional logic) and converts them into C code to be sent to the compiler. You can
examine the preprocessed output to make sure that the logic in your source code is being interpreted by the
preprocessor as you expect in order to debug compilation problems.
The assembly output is the set of instructions that the compiler generated from the preprocessed output. You
can study the assembly output to see how the instructions were formed or ordered, to seek out better
optimization patterns, or to look for compiler bugs.
The output type is also a new category in the assistant editor for a selected primary file.

Autolayout
Interface Builder in Xcode 4.1 adds support for the new AppKit Autolayout feature. Autolayout, available starting
with OS X v10.7 Lion, uses relationships called constraints to govern the layout of objects in the user interface.
This feature is a complete replacement for the autoresizing mask. As you make changes to any view or control
in Interface Builder (move it around, resize it, change an attribute, add a subview, and so forth), Interface Builder
automatically adds and removes constraints based on the new layout. When you enable this feature, Interface
Builder shows the constraints as you work.


39

Build Setting Values in Scheme Pre- and Post-Action Scripts

Note: Autolayout is available only in OS X v10.7 Lion and later. If you are running Xcode 4 in OS X
v10.6 Snow Leopard, Autolayout is not available.

Autolayout is enabled per nib. To start using Autolayout, select the Use Autolayout checkbox in the File inspector
for each nib. When you enable Autolayout, Xcode updates your build settings, if necessary, to ensure your
deployment target is OS X v10.7 or greater. For nib files in projects that had been targeted for OS X v10.6 or
earlier, Interface Builder adds constraints to your nib files automatically when you enable Autolayout.
You can edit an automatic constraint or add your own. To add a constraint, select the view or views for which
you want to add the constraint and choose a constraint from the Editor > Add Constraint menu.
You can delete a user constraint, but not an automatic constraint. Rather than trying to delete automatic
constraints, create the constraints you want.

Build Setting Values in Scheme Pre- and Post-Action Scripts
There is often a need to access values from the target build settings in pre- and post-action scripts (similar to
the way shell script build phases work). This enhancement allows a pre- or post-action script to define the
target build settings to use via a pop-up menu in the scheme editor’s pre- and post-action panes.

OS X Application Sandbox
An application sandbox enforces restrictions, known as entitlements , on how an application can interact with
the rest of the system. A sandboxed application is harder to compromise and therefore enhances security for
users. For example, if your application has no need to have access to the network, you can specify that the
application’s sandbox should prohibit network access. Then if a hostile hacker manages to take over control
of your application on a user’s computer, the hacker won’t be able to use the application to send email or
connect to the internet.
The iOS platform has supported entitlements for a while, and with Lion, OS X does as well. With Xcode 4.1, the
project editor provides a UI for setting up entitlements for OS X applications. You can set entitlements for each
target in the project editor. There is also a default code-signing entitlements file available in the file templates
in the utilities pane.


40

Debugger Disassembly

Note: Although the OS X sandboxing UI is available in Xcode on v10.6 Snow Leopard, only OS X
v10.7 Lion and later versions of the operating system enforce the entitlements.

When you enable application sandboxing, you can select an entitlements file if you already have one. If you
do not, Xcode creates one with the name of your project and the extension entitlements. You can view and
edit this file with the property list editor in Xcode.

Debugger Disassembly
The debugger disassembly feature provides you the ability to select what kind of content you view when
debugging: source only (when available), disassembly only, or source and disassembly. The disassembly is the
set of assembly-language instructions seen by the debugger while your program is running. Viewing the
disassembly can give you more insight into what your code is doing when it’s stopped at a breakpoint. By
viewing the disassembly and source code together, you can more easily relate the instruction being executed
with the code you wrote.
Choose Product > Debug Workflow to enable the disassembly-only display. The source and disassembly display
is implemented as an Assistant category.

Git Remote Management
Support has been added in Xcode 4.1 for managing GIT remote repositories. You can select remote repositories
from appropriate SCM workflows (such as push or pull). This feature enhances the ability of Xcode to be used
for source control management.

In-Place Snapshot Restoration
With the Xcode 4.0 release, snapshots could not be restored on top of the current project content. The workflow
for replacing the current version of your application with the version preserved in a snapshot involved restoring
the snapshot, and then using the Finder to delete the current version and move the snapshot version into the
appropriate folder. With Xcode 4.1, snapshots are automatically restored on top of the current version, unless
you specify otherwise.
In Xcode 4.1, when you choose Restore Snapshot from the File menu and select the snapshot to restore, Xcode
displays a preview dialog in which you can review the differences between the current version of the project
and the snapshot version. When you click Restore, Xcode replaces the current version of the project with the
version in the snapshot. Xcode makes a snapshot of the current version before replacing it.


41

Internal Project Files in Repositories

To restore a snapshot in a new location instead of restoring on top of the current project, select the snapshot
in the Projects pane of the Organizer window, choose the project you want to restore, and click the Export
Snapshot button at the bottom of the window.

Internal Project Files in Repositories
This feature provides visibility into internal project files (schemes, user interface settings, and so forth) when
looking at SCM details in the SCM commit and update workflows. You can use this facility to save and keep
track of versions of project files in the same way as you save and keep track of source files.

Scheme and Run-Destination Selection
The popup menu for selecting schemes and run destinations has been changed to a path control, in order to
provide you the ability to select either the scheme or run destination independently. You can still select both
in a single gesture (using the submenus of the schemes). For projects or workspaces having a large number
of schemes and several run destinations, this path control makes the menu much shorter and easier to deal
with.

Key Bindings for Closing a Project or a Workspace
In Xcode 4.0, there was no default key binding to close a project or workspace. If you held the Option key when
clicking the close box in the upper-left corner of the workspace window, all tabs, windows, and the project
were closed, so that when you reopened the project, your previous set of windows and tabs did not reopen.
In Xcode 4.1, the Command-Option-W key combination closes the project or workspace. Also, when you hold
the Option key and click the close box, the project or workspace closes without first closing all windows and
tabs. In this way, your window configuration is restored the next time you open the project.

Interface Builder Plug-in Support
If you used Interface Builder plug-ins in Xcode 3, you can continue to build and run your project in Xcode 4,
and you can update your project to make your nib files editable in Xcode 4.
Xcode 4 provides limited support for Interface Builder 3 plug-ins. Specifically, you can build a project with
Interface Builder plug-in dependencies, but you can’t edit the nib files. When you try to open a nib file with
plug-in dependencies, Xcode 4 displays a dialog suggesting that you update the file. If you agree, Xcode


42

Interface Builder Plug-in Support

converts the class of custom objects built with plug-ins to the nearest AppKit class. If the conversion isn’t
possible, Xcode 4 provides a detailed error message. In that case, you must remove the plug-in dependency
using Interface Builder 3 before you can edit the nib file in Xcode 4.


43

Document Revision History

This table describes the changes to What's New In Xcode .
Date

Notes

2012-09-19

Describes the new features in Xcode 4.5

2012-06-11

Describes changes for the Xcode 4.4 release.
Describes changes for the Xcode 4.3.3 release.

2012-05-09

Updated for the Xcode 4.3.2 release.

2012-03-08

Describes the new features in Xcode 4.3.1

2012-02-16

Describes the new features in Xcode 4.3

2011-10-12

Describes the new features in Xcode 4.2.

2011-07-05

Describes how to use the features new in Xcode 4.1.


44

Apple Inc.
© 2012 Apple Inc.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, mechanical, electronic,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
prior written permission of Apple Inc., with the
following exceptions: Any person is hereby
authorized to store documentation on a single
computer for personal use only and to print
copies of documentation for personal use
provided that the documentation contains
Apple’s copyright notice.
No licenses, express or implied, are granted with
respect to any of the technology described in this
document. Apple retains all intellectual property
rights associated with the technology described
in this document. This document is intended to
assist application developers to develop
applications only for Apple-labeled computers.
Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-996-1010
Apple, the Apple logo, Cocoa, Dashcode, Finder,
Instruments, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Leopard, Mac,
Objective-C, OS X, Quartz, Safari, Sand, Snow
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