Apple announces Xcode developer tools
updated 05:10 pm EDT, Mon June 23, 2003
Apple today announced delivers performance improvements that are five times faster than Apple's previous generation developer tools, delivering significantly faster turn around times for developers creating applications for Mac OS X.
With the Xcode Fix and Continue feature, developers can make live code changes to a running application and see their effect immediately without the need to restart the application. Zero Link removes the linking stage for all development builds, dramatically reducing turnaround times; build times are minimized through a Rendezvous-enabled Distributed Build feature allowing developers to compile applications using multiple systems.
Xcode also features a new user interface, which Apple says is a "revolutionary approach to developer productivity by presenting all the information and tools developers need in a streamlined interface similar to the successful iTunes and iPhoto consumer applications." Smart Groups, similar to Playlists in iTunes, provide a paradigm for organizing projects while Fast Find delivers a consistent search interface with live indexing that refines searches as they are entered. Code completion increases accuracy while API documentation is accessible directly from the source code editor. It also offers the ability to directly import CodeWarrior project files into Xcode for easy migration from CodeWarrior.
Xcode is built to optimize applications for the next generation Apple PowerPC G5 processor. It will be available in English and Japanese worldwide on September 15, 2003. All registered attendees at WWDC 2003 will receive a free copy of the Xcode preview release, while Select and Premier ADC members will have access to the Xcode preview release through the ADC web site.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
Killer
This should attract more developers to the OS X platform. Using compile-farms is a major breakthrough for the Mac platform as it will speed up time-to-market and will encourage further software refinement and optimization because of the incredibly short recompile times with a farm. Zero link on a single processor is a huge improvement as well. It's all good.