Without paying to be an Apple developer, it seems I can only download Xcode 3. I do intend to pay the $99 but wanted to wait until I was confident in my project before handing over the money incase things didn't go too well.
Would it be a bad idea to download Xcode 3 and work from there, or should I just pay the $99 now to get Xcode 4? What are the differences between the two of them other than changes to make the interface easier to use etc.
Start with 3 and don't worry about it. All project for Xcode 3 are fully compatible with Xcode 4 and will open normally. Once you get the membership you can move to Xcode 4. The only problem is if you have Mac OS Lion, only the latest 4.1 is supported on it. But didn't someone mention that Apple moved Xcode 4 back to Free again?
No, Xcode 3 is fully capable of doing everything Xcode 4 can do in an app.
In fact, many things that were available in the IDE in XCode 3 were dropped and cannot be done anymore on XCode 4. Some I recall are seeing SVN Annotations (blame) for a file, support for custom IBPlugins ...
No, Xcode 3 is fully capable of doing everything Xcode 4 can do in an app.
In fact, many things that were available in the IDE in XCode 3 were dropped and cannot be done anymore on XCode 4. Some I recall are seeing SVN Annotations (blame) for a file, support for custom IBPlugins ...
Does Xcode 3 run under 10.7? Can Xcode 3 build for iOS 4.3? How about the upcoming iOS 5 that's in Beta? Can it develop ARC code?
My advise is the opposite of that from other posters. Xcode 4 is VERY different from Xcode 3.x. Maddeningly different. Bafflingly, every-last-thing-is-in-a-totally-different-place-for-no-good-reason different. I hated making the change, and really resent the capricious way Apple changed everything.
If you learn Xcode 3, you will be horribly lost and confused when you switch to Xcode 4. I was, and still have to struggle if I need to do something that I haven't done in Xcode 4 before.
If you're starting cold, it seems to me you're better off learning the new tools, and not wasting time learning Xcode 3. I predict Apple will not support Xcode 3 for very much longer. I give it 6 months. (This is a guess, but an educated one...)
Check out this password generator app that shows various techniques including using a data container singleton object to share data between objects in your project.
It can't run in Lion as I've mentioned, but it still is available with the 4.3 SDK. And when it comes to iOS 5 and ARC, that's still in beta.
But I'm surprised you found the transition so confusing. For me it was pretty easy (with a few glances at the Xcode 4 Transition Guide from the docs) especially since I found the v4 interface much better. Though admittedly, my time with v3 was most likely much shorter than yours so I didn't get that much used to it.
EDIT: Do check out Xcode in Mac App Store, it's appearing as Free to me so you might be able to get v4 without the account after all.
It can't run in Lion as I've mentioned, but it still is available with the 4.3 SDK. And when it comes to iOS 5 and ARC, that's still in beta.
But I'm surprised you found the transition so confusing. For me it was pretty easy (with a few glances at the Xcode 4 Transition Guide from the docs) especially since I found the v4 interface much better. Though admittedly, my time with v3 was most likely much shorter than yours so I didn't get that much used to it.
EDIT: Do check out Xcode in Mac App Store, it's appearing as Free to me so you might be able to get v4 without the account after all.
I had invested a LOT of time in learning Xcode, starting with Xcode 2.x, if memory serves. The change from Xcode 2 to 3 was significant, but it built on the foundations of the previous version. Things changed when there was a specific reason for them to change, and those changes fit into the framework of an existing IDE.
The change from Xcode 3 to Xcode 4 was wholesale. Not a single screen, menu item, keyboard shortcut, or command was the same. Every single thing I went to do was completely different. What to change an environment variable? Good luck finding it. Want to create a new target? Ha-ha, that's in a different place too! Want to edit your build settings? Want to use a keyboard shortcut to build and debug? Oops. Want to single-step into or over a method call? Those buttons, menu items, and keyboard shortcuts are all different. I think it would have been about as easy to go re-learn the Windows C++ IDE. I haven't done that in 12 years, but I bet it hasn't changed as much in 12 years as Xcode did in a single release. It drove me nuts.
Check out this password generator app that shows various techniques including using a data container singleton object to share data between objects in your project.
I agree with Duncan. I've been programming for over 25 years, and have experienced (and had to put up with) tens of different programming environments, and the tools (or lack thereof) that go with them.
The change between XCode4 and XCode3, however, was shocking, and came as a big surprise. Don't get me wrong, XCode4 has some great new features, but many things are just so different for, as Duncan said, no seemingly good reason.
If you're serious about creating apps to put on the AppStore, forget XCode3 - pay the $99 now and get stuck into XCode4. Otherwise you'll have to learn it all over again (and you'll also suffer the pain of some of XCode3's drawbacks for no good reason).
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Thanks for sharing. I don't have the money at the moment to spend $99 (the joys of being a student), so I think i'll use this time to get my head into some books and study tutorials.
but wanted to wait until I was confident in my project before handing over the money incase things didn't go too well.
needs to consider what he really wants to do. Do you have any development background? Are you serious about development for iOS, or are you just playing around to see if it's your cup of tea? The choice wether to pay upfront would depend on the answers to those questions. But to reiterate, do check Xcode in Mac App Store, for me it keeps saying it's Free (and that's when logged in with a different account, not the one in Dev program), not sure if because I have it installed or something else.
needs to consider what he really wants to do. Do you have any development background? Are you serious about development for iOS, or are you just playing around to see if it's your cup of tea? The choice wether to pay upfront would depend on the answers to those questions. But to reiterate, do check Xcode in Mac App Store, for me it keeps saying it's Free (and that's when logged in with a different account, not the one in Dev program), not sure if because I have it installed or something else.
I don't have access to my Mac at the moment but I will check in the morning to see if I can get it on the Mac App Store.
Without paying to be an Apple developer, it seems I can only download Xcode 3. I do intend to pay the $99 but wanted to wait until I was confident in my project before handing over the money incase things didn't go too well.
Would it be a bad idea to download Xcode 3 and work from there, or should I just pay the $99 now to get Xcode 4? What are the differences between the two of them other than changes to make the interface easier to use etc.
Xcode 4 shows as a free app on my Mac app store. You don't want to learn xcode 3 then have to switch. It's a huge jump if you can avoid it.
I would say that 4 is the way to go. I joined up last year just as 4 was still in beta. Throughout the beta i was bouncing between the two, 3 and 4 but that was mainly because of the beta builds being - well beta builds - but as soon as a stable version was available i jumped into 4. I did it for the reasons already stated - i decided that there was no point in spending ages messing around in 3 and learning that when the difference was so large that i would be learning a whole new environment again. And being new to development i didn't fell as though my time would be spent well learning two versions of Xcode.
If your hardware can take it, upgrade to Lion. You were probably going to do it anyway at one time, it's $29 instead of $99, and you'll be able to get Xcode 4.
Xcode 3 or 4
Linear Mode
