Xcode 11 Features
Some of the XCode 11 features are:
- SwiftUI
- Minimap
- Rich Documentation
- Swift Package Manager
- Inline Diff
- Transform iPad Apps to Mac
- Debugging and Simulators
Let’s look into each of these one by one.
1. SwiftUI
SwiftUI is the big announcement this year. It’s a new framework introduced for easily creating layouts using swift code. Moreover, Xcode shows us a real app like interface viewer side by side while you edit the Swift file.
It requires a Declarative syntax which is easy to use Swift code. Adding animations and stuff is all very easy.
Xcode 11 Swiftui
This is a major shift from the Storyboards and drag and drop setup. The only issue:
To use SwiftUI, select the toolbox from the project setup window as shown below:
Xcode Swiftui Setup
2. Minimap
Xcode has an awesome looking minimap of your code at the left. You can quickly go to a specific part of your code through it.
This feature was much needed and long awaited in Xcode since it was already available in many other editors like Atom etc.
Xcode 11 Minimap
3. Rich Documentation
The documentation looks better in Xcode 11. The MARK keyword followed by a hyphen has a much bolder text which is clearly visible in the minimap as well.
Here’s a sneak peek into it:
Xcode11 Rich Documentation
4. Swift Package Manager
Up until now, to add third-party libraries or dependencies, we had to use Cocoapods or Carthage.
Xcode 11 introduces its own built-in package manager. Just go to files – Swift Packages and add a dependency by searching the package through the list of GitHub repositories.
Xcode11 Swift Package Manager
Once you’ve added the dependency it will be shown at the bottom of your project in the left sidebar.
5. Inline Diff
Xcode 11 provides an improved UI to show changes in each line of code based on version control as shown below:
Xcode11 Inline Diff
Clicking the blue bar at the left shows us options to discard changes or view the diff. Certainly, the diff feature is handy.
6. Transform iPad Apps to Mac
With Xcode 11, it’s easy to port and run ipad apps on mac natively. You can do so by doing to the Project Navigator and selecting the relevant checkbox as shown below:
Xcode11 Ipadtomac
7. Debugging and Simulators
- iOS Simulator speed has vastly improved in Xcode 11. They are now much faster thus removing the over-reliance of external devices for testing most of the stuff.
- Starting XCode 11, you won’t have a simulator for every possible device but only for the commonly used devices. This saves a lot of disk space.
- Metal framework code can now be run and tested on iOS 13 and tvOS 13 simulators. They’ll use the Mac’s GPU.
- You can now debug your application under simulated environments like low battery, thermal warnings, slow network.
- iOS 13 dark theme is a game changer. During debugging on iOS 13, we can switch between light and dark modes easily from our Xcode debugger.
That brings an end to this article on Xcode 11 features. If I have missed an important feature, please let me know through comments.
