Beginning Xcode®

Chapter 6. Editing Text

In the introduction, I mentioned that Xcode doesn't really do much of the actual development work. Most of the heavy lifting is performed by a suite of external tools—compilers, linkers, debuggers, and others—that are not part of the Xcode application. But Xcode does provide one critical tool that is integral to any developer's workflow: a text editor. You will spend far more time editing source files than doing any other single task while developing a program. Learning how to efficiently edit and quickly navigate your source files will greatly enrich your productivity.

Windows and Panes

Editing in Xcode occurs in an editor pane. An editor pane can be part of a multi-pane window, like the project window in the Default style, or it can be the sole content of a separate editor window. Figure 6-1 shows a file being edited in three panes: once in the project window, again in the editor pane of the project find window, and again in an independent editor window.

Editing Panes

Xcode editing panes are homogeneous. The features, functions, and capabilities are identical regardless of where they appear. This imparts one extremely useful feature: No matter where a source file appears in Xcode, you have the full power of the Xcode editor at your disposal. The text of a file that appears in a search window, the debugger, or the object browser can all be edited immediately without any need to locate the file or open a specialized window. The same file can appear in multiple ...