Idle Time

Xcode’s distribution has changed greatly in 4.3.

First, it’s now simply an app, without an Installer package. If you install it through the Mac App Store, it’ll install directly–no more “Install Xcode.app” (which I think I read earlier that you have to delete, although I can’t speak to this myself). If you install it from the disk image, it’s a drag-and-drop install.

Second, the set of applications that come with it (now bundled inside) is now much smaller. The other developer applications have been split out into separate disk images that are only available on connect.apple.com.

So, I thought I’d make a catalog listing where everything is now. Every one of the below sections corresponds to a disk image on connect.apple.com, and with the exception of Xcode, every one of those disk images is only available from connect.apple.com—only Xcode is available from the Mac App Store.

Xcode (and the other core tools)

The core tools are inside Xcode regardless of where you get it from. That will be either:

• From the App Store, or
• In a disk image you can download from connect.apple.com

The applications bundled inside Xcode are:

• Application Loader: One way of submitting your application to the Mac App Store.
• FileMerge: Differencing tool. As its name implies, primarily for visually merging three versions rather than comparing two.
• Icon Composer: Create IconFamily (.icns) files from multiple individual images.
• Instruments: Use this to make your app more efficient, or to hunt zombies.
• OpenGL ES Performance Detective

Accessibility Tools for Xcode

• Accessibility Inspector (a.k.a. UIElementInspector): Examine the Accessibility properties of NS/HIViews in any application.
• Accessibility Verifier: Automatically runs through an application’s accessible object hierarchy, including windows and views, and produces an outline of things it does wrong or fails to do that could cause accessibility problems for users.

Audio Tools for Xcode

• AU Lab: Set up chains of Audio Units to filter audio or route it from a source to a destination.
• CoreAudio: Sample code for some of Core Audio’s older APIs.
• HALLab: Tool for inspecting the audio object hierarchy.

Auxiliary Tools for Xcode

• 64BitConversion: Tools for porting 32-bit Cocoa code to 64-bit.
• Clipboard Viewer: See every type on the clipboard (general pasteboard).
• CrashReporterPrefs: Change how your system reacts to an application crashing.
• Dictionary Development Kit: Build your own dictionaries for Dictionary.app.
• Help Indexer: Makes your Help Books searchable. (Only useful for Mac developers.)
• LegacyAPISurvey: Tells you what APIs you’re using that are in danger of being deprecated.
• Modem Scripts: Examples of CCL scripts (essentially, modem drivers).
• PackageMaker: Build Installer packages.
• Repeat After Me: Test the Speech Synthesis Manager, exporting to either phoneme text or an AIFF file.
• SleepX
• SRLanguageModeler: Something to do with Speakable Items, but I couldn’t figure out how to work it.

Dashcode for Xcode

• Dashcode: IDE for making Dashboard widgets. It “includes a design canvas that produces the graphics assets for you, as well as a powerful code editor, and even a full JavaScript debugger”.

Graphics Tools for Xcode

• CI Filter Browser (Dashboard widget)
• OpenGL Profiler
• OpenGL Shader Builder
• Pixie: Like DigitalColor Meter, but more developer-oriented. YMMV on which is better.
• Quartz Composer: Create compositions that can be used within applications or as screensavers. Also useful for developing Core Image filters.
• Quartz Composer Visualizer
• Quartz Debug: Monitor your computer’s graphics performance (global frame rate), toggle various settings in the Quartz Compositor, and enable or disable the HiDPI resolutions.

Hardware IO Tools for Xcode

• Bluetooth Diagnostics Utility
• Bluetooth Explorer
• btdump
• IORegistryExplorer: See what’s connected to your Mac.
• Network Link Conditioner (prefpane): Makes your internet connection pretend to suck so you can see how your app performs under such conditions.
• PacketLogger: Another Bluetooth tool.
• USB Prober: Inspect your USB buses and the devices connected to them.

Categories: Toolchain; Xcode. | Comments: 1 (feed).