Xcode
| Xcode | |
|---|---|
| File:Xcode icon.png | |
| File:Xcode-helloworld.png Xcode 3.0 running on Mac OS X 10.5.0 | |
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
| Stable release | 3.0
/ October 26 2007 |
| Preview release | 26 beta (17A5241e)[1] (June 9, 2025) [±] |
| Operating system | Mac OS X v10.3 (Version 1.x) Mac OS X v10.4 (Version 2.x) |
| Type | Integrated Development Environment (IDE) |
| License | Mixed proprietary and copyleft software |
| Website | Apple - Xcode |
Xcode is Apple's suite of tools for developing software on Mac OS X. Xcode 3.0, the latest version, is bundled free with Mac OS X v10.5, though is not installed by default. Version 3.0 is not supported on older Mac OS versions, for which Xcode is also available for free from Apple Developer Connection.
The main application of the suite is the integrated development environment (IDE), also named Xcode. The Xcode suite also includes most of Apple's developer documentation, and Interface Builder, an application used to construct graphical interfaces.
The Xcode suite includes a modified version of free software GNU Compiler Collection (GCC, apple-darwin9-gcc-4.0.1 ), and can compile C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Java, and AppleScript source code with a variety of programming models, including but not limited to Cocoa, Carbon, and Java. Third parties have added support for GNU Pascal,[2] Free Pascal[3], Ada[4], Perl[5] and D[6]. The Xcode suite uses GDB as the back-end for its debugger.
Major features
Among the highly touted features of the Xcode suite is the technology to distribute the building of source code over multiple computers. The original, now called Shared Workgroup Build, uses the Bonjour protocol to automatically discover computers providing compiler services, and the free software distcc. More recent versions of Xcode added a second system, called Dedicated Network Builds, which scales better to larger configurations.
Due to modifications to GCC by Apple, Xcode can build universal binaries which allows software to run on both PowerPC and Intel-based (x86) platforms. Furthermore the modified GCC can build 32- and 64-bit applications for both architectures.
Xcode also includes Apple's WebObjects tools and frameworks for building Java web applications and web services (previously sold as a separate $699 product). As for Xcode 3.0, Apple dropped WebObjects development inside Xcode 3, WOLips should be used instead. Xcode 3 still include the WebObjects frameworks.
In August 2006, Apple announced that DTrace, a dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems and released as part of OpenSolaris, would be integrated into Xcode as Xray; Xray was later renamed to Instruments.
History
The Xcode suite, like Mac OS X itself, had its roots in technology from NeXT. Prior to the October 24 2003 release of Mac OS X v10.3, Apple referred to the suite of tools as Developer Tools. The Xcode IDE was developed from and superseded Apple's earlier IDE, Project Builder which was inherited and rewritten from NeXT's IDE of the same name.
References
- ^ "Xcode 26 beta (17A5241e) - Releases - Apple Developer". Apple Developer. Apple Inc. June 9, 2025. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ http://www.microbizz.nl/gpcxcode.html
- ^ http://pascal-central.com/fp-xcode/
- ^ http://www.adapower.net/macos/tools.html
- ^ http://camelbones.sourceforge.net/index.html
- ^ http://michelf.com/projets/d-pour-xcode/
External links
- Apple Developer Connection: Xcode tools and resources
- Apple.com: Xcode features
- Download Xcode
- Become an Xcoder - PDF for learning how to write Cocoa in Xcode