Xcode: Apple’s Answer to Visual Studio

If you recall from a previous entry I did a few months ago, I am quite impressed with the latest developments coming out of Apple, especially XCode.

The Software Development Times has published an article about Apple's answer to Visual Studio, which is none other than the XCode I mentioned!

If you are interested in developing on OSX, consider reading this article to get an understanding about the wonders of XCODE. For me, the best thing about XCode would have to be the distributed compiling (nothing like stealing computing resources from the graphics department :) ), zero-link builds which reload binaries on the fly and predictive automated compiles. All neat features for the power developer.

What impresses me most about Apple's approach to developers over Microsoft's is the cost. To get the right tools, APIs, licenses and build environment (not to mention MSDN itself) you will easily be shelling out thousand and thousands of dollars (I think my total so far in the office for MSDN and the DDK/IFS is over $5000 just to get started on the Microsoft platform, for each developer). Apple includes everything for free in the OS they sell for $129. Now lets be fair, the market share is on the Windows platforms and Apple is trying to draw more developers to its own platforms, which is why they need to make the tools available for almost nothing. But after developing code myself on Unix platforms for what seems to be eons, it is a major change to move from free open source tools to the commercial ones available on the Windows platforms. Hard to complain though when I expect to make a living on said platform.

But I still admire Apple's position, and their latest version of OSX. Maybe someday I will even get a chance to own a PowerBook. Just imagine, I could do kernel-mode drivers for Windows through Virtual PC and still have all the powers of OSX to boot. Of course, I would need over a gig of ram, and be willing to deal with the huge slow downs of having two virtual machines running two copies of Windows at the same time (one dev to run WinDbg and one running my ring zero driver). Ya I'm nuts.. and in dreamland. But its fun to have dreams.