On Oct 15, 2012, at 20:41 , Crispin Bennett < email@hidden> wrote: I've heard it suggested (not from anywhere remotely authoritative) that GC may be one of the reasons for Xcode 4's instability. Is there any likelihood that this might be true? What are the chances that Apple will rework Xcode to use ARC?
I have no privileged information, or any information at all, really, but I have the impression that GC was one of the things that *enabled* the feasibility of Xcode 4 as such a major reworking of Xcode 3. I also don't get the impression that the problems of Xcode 4 have anything to do with the memory management model. FWIW, I think the troubles in Xcode 4 are mainly a result of the vastly greater ground Xcode 4 now has to cover -- too much complexity, too quickly. Xcode 4 has a lot of new UI elements, it has to integrate the compiler (clang, rather than gcc) in an entirely new way including indexing, and has to integrate an entirely new debugger.
As for Xcode using ARC, I've found that the code for GC and ARC is generally identical, except that in going GC->ARC you would pretty much have to reconsider every path of execution to determine whether you'd be introducing retain cycles, and engineer solutions. For well-established apps, it just doesn't seem feasible to do -- and there's probably no payoff for an app like Xcode.
If there's an Xcode 5 coming, I wouldn't be surprised if were ARC, though. :) |