While we await the final release of Xcode 4 to revise its worst UI offenses, Xcode 3.2.3 remains the only blessed way to develop iOS apps. So Xcode is on the dock whether I like it or not.

On a whim, I attended WWDC 2003 via Apple’s student scholarship. It was a good year: Panther (Exposé, fast user switching, Safari), iApps (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD), iSight, G5 PowerMac, and of course Xcode — Project Builder revised and rechristened.

• Startup
  • ✗ Show this window when Xcode launches
  • Preferences
    • Building
      • Place Build Products in: Customized location — Good for version control because then you don’t need to choose to ignore the build directory. Also good when you use a library.
      • For Unsaved Files: Always Save
    • Debugging
      • ✗ Load symbols lazily — Checked by default because Apple hates you. Seriously, unless something has changed, you can’t reliably use the debugger if this is checked.
      • ✓ Auto Clear Debug Console — I like her fresh.
    • Key Bindings — aka Devil’s Playground
      • Find > Jump to Definition control+z
    • Text Editing
      • ✓ Show line numbers
    • Fonts & Colors
      • Monaco - 10 for everything — Creature of habit.
    • Indentation
      • ✓ Wrap lines in editor
      • ✓ Indent wrapped lines by: 3 — The funny amount gives them away. I prefer to manually wrap my lines. Don’t like any other fancy formatting though. Don’t try to lineup variable declarations or anything. Maybe if I used Emacs. Emacs probably violates the iPhone SDK License.
    • Toolbars
      • Icon Only in Main window, Build window, Debug window, Console window, and every other window. Text is helpful for unfamiliar toolbars, waster of precious vertical space for familiar ones.

Next Time?

Apple has Xcode. Adobe has Flash Builder — for those of us who don’t believe the reality distortion.