Professional Xcode® 3

Chapter 23. Customizing Xcode

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Setting expert preferences

• Changing command key shortcuts and editor key bindings

• Using alternate editor applications

• Creating custom text macros and command scripts

• Making your own project, file, and target templates

Apple is famous for developing spare and elegant software. Rare indeed is the Apple application that suffers from "featurosis" — a malady of ever-expanding specialized features that eventually smother an application in an incomprehensible maze of commands and options.

Developers, however, are not consumers. At least they don't think of themselves as consumers. Developers are professionals that expect, nay demand, that almost every aspect of the tools they use be under their control to alter, repurpose, and tweak as they see fit. I have personally worked with a developer who, dissatisfied with the warnings produced by a compiler, downloaded its source code, corrected the perceived flaw, and built his own personalized version to use. Although the wisdom of his actions are debatable, the spirit of "if you don't like the way it works, build your own" runs deep and strong through the developer community.

For this reason, Xcode is a departure from most software produced by the engineering teams at Apple. Xcode has a dizzying array of customizable options, as witnessed by the monstrous Xcode Preferences window. Using the Xcode interface, you can completely customize the keystrokes used to invoke every Xcode command and motion. ...