XCode *can* do it!

Firstly I want to thank all those who helped out with this thread, here we have a list of the things you might not immediately know how to do:

On 27/10/2006, at 12:14 PM, David Walters wrote:

My First Eight Hours with XCode :
(or what I couldn't figure out how to do)

From the tiny things, like no shift-delete to remove a line,

I re-mapped shift-delete to select the line, then press delete again to remove it. No problem.

to the big things like instance member completion for standard library classes -

Just keep Stroustrup handy at the desk (!)

how do we switch between code windows in x-code? I miss control-tab.

Command-` for switching between windows (not just code windows) - but wait there's more!

On 27/10/2006, at 4:28 PM, Michael Rice wrote:

* I run Xcode in the "All-In-One" layout. This makes it much more usable for me.
* To switch between header/source (the "Counterpart"), use Cmd+Opt+UpArrow.
* To move back and forth in your recent files, use Cmd+Opt+LeftArrow and Cmd+Opt+RightArrow.
* There is a recent file list dropdown at the top of the editor pane, in addition to the function list dropdown, bookmarks dropdown, etc.
* To comment/uncomment a block of code, select the block and press Cmd+/

No comment-selection? Surely I just don't know how to do it in xcode... i select some text and press (what?_) and the selected lines are commented -

Comment Block - Found in the user scripts menu, not bound to a key combination by default, however Michael Rice suggested that we use command-backslash - and I was able to map that in the key bindings preference page.

A little light on the API reference, come on apple, we all used java, we know it isn't hard to run doxygen over our source code - thankfully we have "jump to definition" ...

I actually want to retract the statement about the api documentation, the apple guys clearly have run doxygen (or something similar) - so that was just a newbie frustration, however it prompted some very helpful words from the xcode-users gurus.

After working with Xcode and Carbon for twelve hours, I found that there are many "Reference Guides" available (just not for the progress bar!) - so be sure to look in the help for :

CFString Reference

Carbon Functions

Handling Carbon Windows

Menu Manager Reference

And remember to use "Jump to Definition" whenever a command is unfamiliar - and here's some advice from Laurence Harris:

Read those headers. :-) Controls.h, HIView.h, and ControlDefinitions.h contain just about every API and constant available for working with controls (noting that an HIViewRef is a ControlRef). It takes a lot less than an hour to read them, and only a few seconds to search them for something like "Maximum."

And from Ronald Hayden:

You can jump to the documentation for a symbol by using Option-double-click.

of course, the "goto last cursor position" for debugging purposes is a must -

hmmm, not sure about this one...

and whoa, what happened to "open <#included file> in new editor"

Michael Schinz to the rescue!

Another pretty useful command is "Open Quickly": if the cursor is on a file name that the command knows how to find (e.g. it's a project file), then it will open it immediately. For example, if you put the cursor on the file name in a #import directive, then type the "Open Quickly" shortcut, you're immediately brought to that file. And even if you don't have the file name under the cursor, "Open Quickly" tries to guess what you mean: e.g. if you have a file called "AppController.m" in your project, you can simply type "appcontroller" in the "Open Quickly" panel, and it will work.

It would be highly excellent if the xcode debugger visualisers for the standard library collection classes were a little less than entirely useless.
Okay apple? That's <vector>, <map> and <string> for starters :)

Everybody's visualisers suck - until the next release of the IDE (2003 m$ visualisers were equally useless, however the 2005 visualisers are now impossible to live without). I hope this is addressed, because there is nothing more helpful than those debug visualisers (when they are working)

And there is the undesirable scrolling behavior thing, where suddenly the screen jumps up/down by several inches when you get to the bottom/top of a document window, but that's a mac thing, not just xcode.

So, we can see, that I was pretty used to complaining about things, being an ex-windowsarian - and we can also see, that all the things I complained about - with the exception of the debug visualisers - were things i just wasn't aware of.

When Java came out, I was so happy I could program my computer with a free tool, and when cygwin came out I was very happy I could do "real" programming on my computer - but Xcode - with Xcode I feel like I OWN MY COMPUTER. No more hypercard, no more filemaker, no more pseudo languages - fair dinkum c++ : now that's more like it!!!

THANKYOU APPLE, twenty years too late, but that's in the past. THANKYOU FOR XCODE!!!

And thanks to the xcode-users list, for showing me that it can do all the things i liked about the other ide from my (now dormant and dusty) pc.

_david

References:
	>XCode Falls Short - for now (From: David Walters <email@hidden>)