Xcode 9 is Unacceptable

Hello igerard, the frustration for many of us is that Xcode has had certain faults for simply ages and as other commentators have said, rather than fixing some of these annoyances Xcode tends to accumulate new ones. The latest release of 9.3 does have a longer than usual list of welcome bug fixes but I cannot comment on 9.3 since some dependencies I am using have not been migrated to Swift 4.1 yet - any one out there seeing improvements over 9.2?

(BTW - I have found that switching to the new build system in project settings has brought about some improvements in 9.2 - but having said that see below)

Hopefully some of these will have been fixed:

1: File navigator remembers which folders are collapsed rather than insisting they all stay open

2: Xcode stops missing a coding change in a protocol and flagging up an error, then offering to write function stubs for code you have removed! (as of 9.2 the only way to get rid of this was to accept the incorrect stubs and then delete them, AFAIK)

3: Xcode offering you image assets in autocompletions in all the wrong places

4: Xcode being unable to locate the entitlements file if you moved it from the default position in the hierarchy

5: Xcode losing track of the info.plist, you end up having to tell Xcode to choose the one that's in the main bundle (fancy finding it THERE!)

6: Xcode incorrectly logging extraneous stuff to the console causing the user to have to set various environment variables to stop these behaviours (after doing some SO research...)

7: Xcode throwing up a red flag (which should stop your code from launching) only to have your app launch perfectly well with Xcode still showing an incorrect fatal error

8: Xcode offering duplicate calls in autocompletions

9: Xcode taking me to iOS documentation when I am clearly in macOS code, or Objc code when I am using Swift

10: Autocomplete moving the most obviously needed completions such as 'return' to second or third in the list meaning we have to stay awake to avoid incorrect selections

11: XCTest classes actually noticing when we have changed main source code without having to clean or re-build first

12: Using Visual Effect views in interface builder causing drawing artefacts to spill out over other views in the IDE

13: The Xcode IDE object library displaying empty view cells until you resize the IDE window slightly to trigger a re-draw

14: Red flag coding fixes causing yet more red flag errors

15: Simple springs and struts layouts displaying incorrectly at run time since Xcode does not convert settings to autolayout constraints correctly

16: Xcode launching my under-development app OK and then promptly crashing itself

17: Xcode running my app in a previously compiled state making me think that my latest coding changes have had no effect - until you set breakpoints and realise that your code is not being hit since Xcode hasn't seen it yet

18: I'm going to stop here or I will be up all night....

Even if some of these things do work correctly now new glaring errors will almost certainly keep coming along in their stead, so how is that Apple releases software these days that simply cannot have been tested thoroughly enough or even at all (remember the machine gun crashes of sourceKit in the early Swift days?...when I first experienced that happening I thought Apple had hit a new low).

As the first poster said, it is unacceptable to release software to which we have to depend on on a daily basis and which persists in a semi-broken state over many beta releases and even GM releases (we are talking YEARS here) - it has got to the point where I simply cannot remember when Xcode was not riddled with errors. The current version of Xcode on the Appstore should only have reached that place if it had been tested correctly but it so clearly hasn't been, hence all the negative reviews. Appstore reviews of Xcode are actually quite dismal reading, reminds me of the sort of press Microsoft received when they released Windows 8...it is sobering to think that we are in the same ball park these days.

Anyhow, this is my latest ramble in an effort to keep this thread high up on the list since all I want is an Xcode that actually works. If my TV or car had this many defects I would want my money back...

Quality is just one of the problems. Only today I had Xcode 9 crash 2 times. I have been a Microsoft dev for years and I was shoked by how much Apple's dev tools are behind Microsoft's. Quality is the #1 thing that Apple needs to address but new features are also needed.

One of the things that I hate the most is no support for MVVM pattern from apple. This pattern is cleary mroe supoerior then MVC and for years Apple has done nothing to give us a Binding mechanism to work with.

Also, a lot of large teams are not using storybaords because there is no support for git conflict resolution. In a dev world where UI and UX is really important working without a storyboard can really be a chalange and is making UI dev much slower.

Apple really needs to invest a lot more into dev tools!

Apple JUST DO IT! Spare a few milion $ for your tools.

And unnexpected crashes?! And the missing features like renaming classes functions etc in all the project? collapse all functions? Transform if else to ternary? good code formatter and rules ? Debbuger always with bugs! Quick preview for colors and images in the code like intelliJ and so many others issue lack of features that i can't remenber because i'm always finding new ways to getting frustrated with this 1998 Beta IDE.

Where we can vote for a new IDE!?

I make your words mine, the Storyboard it's a mess to work when you work in a teamlike GIT, why not edit your storyboard directly in XML?!Simple because apple decided to make that a mess of lines. Android studio it's a good example you can use the editor(GUI) or you can edit directly in xml, because they have some kind of organization.

36090583

Xcode 9 - Re-opening Project Puts Windows into Tabs

(because they told me to open a new report for some reason so I did...)

(they say is a duplicate of 35976549 yet remains unfixed)

33157351

Xcode 9 - Re-opening Project Puts Windows into Tabs

(they say is dupicate of 32577013 yet remains unfixed)

34638052

Refactoring Broken - IBOutlet Variable Name Change

(causes your code to crash at the first line of UIApplicationMain(), a day of debugging to figure it out)

(workaround: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37313374/how-to-rename-the-iboutlet-property-without-lose-the-connection/46396096#46396096)

33157883

Xcode Randomly Changes Some Editor Window When Opening Code Document from Finder

(with mulitple windows open in Xcode and opening a project file from the finder, it is a crap-shoot which window loses its context in xcode and becomes the new document)

33916428

Changing Name of Xcode While Running Boogers Up Xcode

(their response "not supported", easy cop-out for not fixing a defect. If it is not supported, then the user should not be able to do it... Finder supports it, Xcode craps out, it's a defect)

But to be clear I could easily spend half of every day just documenting defects in Xcode for a month. The defects are constant... like a road they never fix and you learn to dodge the potholes... and only address it with "City Hall" when you bash a rim... I simply don't have time to be the Xcode Q&A department and I get the distinct feeling that there is none or they ignore the poor intern.

@STMappDev All excellent points.

Jobs had the intestinal fortitide to pull back hard on marketing's reigns and force Snow Leopard to be a bug fix release against Leopard. We need a Snow Leopard of Xcode (including and especially the OSs)

Seems that others feel simiar and Snow Leopard has become the stuff of legend and myth:

https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/31/snow-leopard-became-reliability-legend/

We need a "Snow Xcode"...

(and a Snow storm in High Sierra... and iOS...)

I wish I can at the least be able to run the xcode.

After spending 1500 on a new macbook, spending hours on setting it up, xcode won't even start after an osX update.

Reinstalling won't help.

What a piece of crap.

I thought MS was bad, this is simply worst....

It wont even start. Productivity == 0;

I work on XCode 9 from first beta, at now i use XCode 9.3 beta 2, but not happines yet 😉

So many bugs come to released 9.2, but also have new bug in the 9.3, for example:

- XCode loose Simulator connects and stuck on find it...

- XCode eat cpu for reload IBDisignable views

- XCode doesn't cure bug with Indexing project stuck (Any helper with tell me about recreate xcproj go to the some forest, because it big project and so many settings doesn't be rewrited from scratch)

- XCode slow compile project on Core i7 2.3, 16GB Ram and pci-e SSD 🙂))) (Create disk on ram for mount DerivedData folder help me to get workaround for indexing of project - see previouse bug)

I know about Apple programmers hard work, but sometimes i think Apple doesn't have programmers at all.

Want to add my voice to this. Every week, I end up wasting hours wrestling with Xcode instability. Autocompletion seems to stop working randomly. Sourcekit is a mess.

Come on Apple - please please get Xcode fixed.

I have to stand up for Apple engineers here. The problem is not that Apple's engineers don't know how to fix these problems or that they don't know about these problems. You have to assume that Apple engineers use Xcode for everything, so they know well the problems. I'll bet, without knowing, that internally it is forbidden for sofware developers to complain about Xcode problems.

That makes the problem management. They set the priorities and allocate resources. At it seems that management does NOT see any problems. Management only see's release dates and expects them to be achieved. Period. They don't use the tools, Apple users don't use the dev tools, so no problem.

If my bonus depended only on hitting release dates, I would do exactly as the Apple enginners are apparently doing. Just release the crap and move on to the next assignement from management.

Apple management won't see a problem until people get very vocal in other venues and media outlets.

I'm pretty much finding the latest Xcode to be useless for coding Python. Random inserts of parentheses and brackets, a question mark that prevents dragging selected text, etc. Stupid misfeatures that ruined the application.

Totally agree (still) with the original post although it's already one year old. Thank you for taking time to write my frustration! One new problem I came across is that it takes ages to drag an image in the image.xcassets. When an image is dropped it is busy for ages to process. Don't understand what can make it so difficult. Just dropping png32 files. Looks like the level of complexity is growing above Apple's head, they can't keep up the lowest quality standards anymore.

Totally agree. 😠

I feel like I need to add my vote to this discussion as well. I have experienced many of the issues listed above and more that are not listed.

Please Apple, do not add any new features to XCode until you have produced a stable version with all current outstanding issues resolved. It is time for a "no new features" WWDC across the board IMO. You must concentrate on making all past features reliable before giving us any new features.

Also, I think a lot of the frustration can be resolved by fixing the black hole that is your bug reporting system. It is incredibly frustrating to not know if your bug report is being taken seriously, prioritized, or even resolved. Simply marking it as duplicate gives us NO indication of WHEN or even IF you intend to fix it. And it is always frustrating to read the release notes for each version of XCode (as I do) and never see YOUR issue listed as acknowledged!

Xcode 9 is a mess? Which version of Xcode wasn't?!

I use Xcode only because JetBrain's AppCode does not have Storyboard support.

Never thought I would need to add a reply to a thread like this as my experience with Xcode 9 had been fine after the last few updates, but since this past Sunday, I have been experiencing the same issues Xcode 9 had at launch where Interface Builder is using 98% and aquarter of my memory of my CPU. I thought this had been taken care of. It's looking like I'll have to upgrade my iMac at this point because I cant work like this.

@neil456; i utterly disagree. It is an employee’s responsibility (just as it is mngt) to do what is right. But an employee with no heart or care for her customer ships whatever it takes to get that bonus. It seems Apple is full of engineers who dont give a rats *** anymore. Can you imagine you had some responsibility over xcode and you would slide one crap thing after another? Even with pressing deadlines you’d slip in improvements! You would build an argument with your manager for bigger fixes requiring more time, you’d ask you colleagues to help. If all that fails....you walk. No?

Apple seem to have many (internal) problems that manifest themselves in the lack of quality or vision for their products. But i have to say the most painful one is xcode. I for one loath to see the WWDC coming on with all those narsistic personalities but no real care for the ‘D’ in WWDC.

Hi Neil

I cannot belive that Apple's own engineers are using the same version of Xcode that we all have to put up with because they wouldn't get much done.

An IDE that entertains you with a colourful rainbow wheel every few keystrokes or tries to flatten my MBP battery by exercising the fans at full speed every now and again grinds my productivity to a standstill. I really need to be able to use my time writing code rather than having to wrestle with Xcode, it is simply not good enough.

Bob Avery wrote:

I cannot belive that Apple's own engineers are using the same version of Xcode

Who ever said they did? Apple writes comparitively more low-level C code, and more server-side Linux/Java/etc. code than any app developers. Apple is much less impacted by Xcode problems.

...in that case then maybe they should try it out from time to time and see what they are trying to dump on the rest of us. If Apple care about their reputation AT ALL (and maybe take a peek in these forums and look at the App Store reviews for Xcode - whch are pretty dismal) then its about time that they started to take quality control seriously. You make it sound like Apple write software - release it - write software - release it ...without trying it out? Really? Either way, its still not good enough, is it?

>sound like Apple write software - release it - write software - release it

It's been some time since Xcode began resembling a 'permanent beta', an otherwise common tactic in the industry these days.

At one point last year, we saw nearly 10 versions of Xcode inside 10 weeks.

Point is, any hope that the tools would level off and resemble anything near release quality has left the station some time back. Best keep any expectations on what that means in check - devs are just fodder for the app store, after all 😉

Bob Avery wrote:

maybe they should try it out from time to time and see what they are trying to dump on the rest of us. If Apple care about their reputation AT ALL (and maybe take a peek in these forums and look at the App Store reviews for Xcode - whch are pretty dismal) then its about time that they started to take quality control seriously

The app market is huge with great potential for profits. Are you going to abandon that because you don't like the tools? If you can find a Windows job or a web development job where you don't have to use Xcode and that pays the same or more, then go for it. You won't hurt anyone's feelings inside Apple or out.

As for Apple's reputation, I'm pretty sure that Apple, like most savvy companies, assigns more relative value to dollars of profit than stars on a review.

I just wish, like others on this thread, that Xcode would actually work as advertised instead of needing such a lot of manual effort from users to keep it going well enough so we can just concentrate on coding.

As for getting a Windows job, Apple is beginning to FEEL like we are back in the old Windows days, something I thought I had escaped from many moons ago. Sorry John, but if Apple put profits above reputation and quality then at some point in the future the profits will start to tail off as the products inevitably decline.

Apple should have enough cash to fund a first class software quality control & review system but this just seems to be so lacking these days.

You _can_ edit your storyboards in XML; right-click your storyboard select open as/source code. I'd not recommend it but you can.