{"id":933,"date":"2017-09-28T13:35:20","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T13:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moveoapps.com\/blog\/?p=933"},"modified":"2019-09-25T11:19:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T11:19:53","slug":"decoding-xcode-9-things-you-should-be-aware-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moveoapps.com\/blog\/decoding-xcode-9-things-you-should-be-aware-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Xcode 9 – 7 Things You Should Be Aware Of"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xcode is an Integrated Development Environment or IDE for macOS, which contains an elaborate suite of software development tools provided by Apple, that include the Simulator, Instruments analysis and OS frameworks. The latest version Xcode 9 comes with some swanky new features that make developing apps with it even more exciting. So let\u2019s check out what some of these new features are and how they make developer\u2019s lives easier.<\/p>\n

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Xcode 9 is unbelievably quick and consistently smooth while editing even the largest files. It also understands your code better than ever, so you can select and edit the structure or even transform the selection directly in the editor. Powerful new refactoring tasks happen in place, renaming symbols across Swift, Objective-C, and even user interface files can be carried out without skipping a beat. And with source compatibility in Swift 4, Xcode 9 uses the same compiler to build existing Swift 3 code and updated Swift 4 code, so you can migrate at your own pace.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Key Features of Xcode 9<\/span><\/h2>\n

A new improved editor: <\/b>Apple has built the entire Xcode in Swift. It\u2019s fast, structure-based editor lets you intelligently highlight and navigate your code. It also includes great Markdown support.
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Refactoring:<\/b> Refactoring is built right into the editing experience and works across Swift, Objective-C, Interface Builder, and many other file types.
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Super-fast search:<\/b> The Find navigator returns instant results.
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Debugging:<\/b> Xcode 9 lets you wirelessly debug iOS and tvOS devices over the network (It will also support iOS 11 Devices).
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Source Control:<\/b> Xcode integrated support for GitHub accounts for quickly browsing repositories and pushing your repositories to the cloud.
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Playground templates:<\/b> Xcode also provides useful templates for the playground.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Build System<\/b>. A preview of Xcode’s new build system provides improved reliability and performance.
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Exploring More in Detail<\/span><\/h2>\n

General<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Xcode 9 has updated the way to define text macros. You can now define text macros using a plist<\/em> file. The indexing engine now includes the ability to index files as they are compiled. Also, the devices window can split into separate panes for device and simulators.
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Asset Catalogs<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

We can now assign our application\u2019s theme color as an asset in Xcode. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Also, the asset catalog has wide gamut app icons, a larger iOS marketing icon to the App Icon set, option to preserve image vector data for matching Dynamic Type scaling and support for HEIF images.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building and Linking<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Xcode 9 has added support for static library targets that contain swift code.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Xcode has also added a preview of the new build system written in Swift. To do so in the Xcode 9, open a project file and then go to File > Project Settings. In the sheet that appears, choose New Build System (Preview) from the Build System popup menu. Note that the menu item will be File > Workspace Settings if you are working with a workspace.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Core ML<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Xcode now also has an inbuilt Core ML editor. Core ML lets you integrate a broad variety of machine learning model types into your app. <\/span><\/p>\n

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From the editor, users can generate strongly typed interfaces for the model and model compilation for on-device usage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Debugging<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Wireless debugging is available in Xcode 9 and it also supports iOS 11 devices. You can debug iOS and tvOS devices over WiFi or wired networks. You can also connect via Bonjour or enter an IP address. iOS devices need to be plugged-in once to enable network debugging.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Documentation<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

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Xcode has the new unified browser that integrates reference, sample code and articles with improved documentation search and integrated sample code downloading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interface Builder<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Added support for use of named colors from the asset catalog, new margin and baseline view constraints, auto layout safe-area guides, full-screen watchOS apps.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Refactoring<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

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Rename a symbol in a single file or in a project across Swift, C, Objective-C, C++ files, and Interface Builder files.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You can now extract method functionality for all supported languages, along with another language-specific local refactoring. You can view all the changes in one place. You can convert method signatures between Swift and Objective-C formats. You can also update properties, getters, setters, and synthesized iVars as needed, and the fix-it automatically fills in missing cases in switch statements, and mandatory methods for protocol conformance, with one click.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simulator<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

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