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Introduction
XCode is an application at the center of the Apple development experience as it is used to build apps for Apple’s products such as the iPhone, AppleTV, Macs, Apple Watch, etc.
However, one cannot run XCode on an iPad as it requires macOS 10.14.4 or a later version and 7.6 GB of hard drive space. The latest version of XCode is 11.
The new version of XCode brings new features such as support for Swift 5.1, the latest version of the Swift Programming Language for Apple. More features include SDKs for iOS 13, watchOS 6, and macOS Catalina 10.15. Each of those platforms has evolved since the last version, and XCode 11 allows you to create apps that use the new features.
Getting Ready
Since XCode runs on Mac OS X, so a MacBook is required for developing the iOS application. An Apple ID is required for the installation process. The first step is to install XCode by searching it on the App Store on the MacBook. It is free to download from App Store.
Once it is installed, explore the IDE. XCode can be used for developing both OS X applications and iOS applications development. For developing iOS applications, iOS SDK is also needed to be installed. These come pre-installed in the latest version of XCode along with simulators and instruments.
Starting a New Project
Once everything is installed, start a new project. There are many templates to choose from. We can choose the Single View Application for simplicity. A window then pops up for choosing options for the new project. Here, provide a name for your project, which in turn appends the organization identifier to create a bundle identifier. After that, we selected the Swift programming language.
Then, select the right device option from iPhone, iPad, or Universal. We select iPhone for this demonstration. After clicking on Next and then Create, we can see our new project window.
There are 5 major areas in the project window as shown in the figure above. These include the navigator, the editor, the utility area, the toolbar, and the debug area.
The Navigator Area
This pane consists of many different navigators that you can switch between using the Navigator Selector Tab Bar. There are about eight navigators, and the most important ones include the project, search and issue navigators.
The Editor Area
The editor area is where all the coding, user interface building, and configuration happens. It changes depending on what file has been selected. For example, f swift has been selected, a code editor is shown, and if a user interface is selected, it will show an Interface Builder.
The Utility Area
The X-code utility area has a lot of Inspectors to view details about the file, element, or code you are looking at. Some of them include the file inspector (which shows details about the currently highlighted file), and the quick help inspector ( which shows the documentation about the method, keyword, or class that your typing cursor is currently on) and the attributes and size inspector that allows you to customize the selected element.
The Toolbar
This consists of a button to run and build the project and launch the app in the iOS Simulator. The button beside it stops the execution of the application and returns to X-code. It also has the X-code status bar and objects library and hiding showing panes that consist of library buttons and review buttons.
There are more options such as: -
Test to run unit tests if they are present in the project.
Profile to measure various aspects of the application such as performance, memory usage, etc.
Analyze to let XCode analyze your code and check for bad practices.
The Debug Area
The debug area shows the console output and variable’s state when the application is running. This area helps us to debug the code and detect why the code is not working properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between emulators and simulators?
We use emulators while talking about android, and we say simulators when talking about iOS. Although these two are similar, there is one significant difference that an emulator can use some OS features to test specific applications, unlike the simulator.
For example, an Emulator may use a laptop's webcam to run a camera-required application, but an iOS simulator will limit such application testing. Emulators may also send SMS messages to one other.
What is the price of installing XCode?
All Mac OS users receive free access to XCode, but in order to publish programs across various App Store platforms, an Apple Developer Program subscription is required, which costs $99 per year.
What are the alternatives to XCode?
When Apple announces any new changes (like with the Swift UI), they build support for these new technologies directly into Xcode. Other third-party apps have to play catchup for these new changes. Some of these third-party apps are: -
AppCode
PhoneGap
Appcelerator
Visual Studio Code
React Native
Flutter
Conclusion
This article extensively discussed how to set up the environment for the XCode IDE and the dos and don'ts to improvise the performance. We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your React Native App Performance knowledge.
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