Got a new computer

I'm using XCode 4, have been since developer preview 1. There are a few bugs, but no show-stoppers, and I personally find the experience in XCode 4 to be superior to XCode 3.

But I'm not developing any commercial software. If you absolutely must have a working development environment, I would suggest staying with XCode 3 until at least the first minor revision. Otherwise, jump on board!

Also I have no experience with XCode plugins. I've never used them. I don't know if there are compatibility issues with trying to XCode 3 plugins in XCode 4.

 

I agree with balamw, if you aren't comfortable with Objective-C go with 3 - especially since almost all documentation will be related to 3. But, if you're already comfortable with the coding and getting around ides in general, go for both.

By the way, congratulations on the new computer.

 

A few things I've gleaned about Xcode 4:

1. The App Store version may provide fewer installation options than the version downloadable by Mac Developer Program members:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/xcode-users/2011/Mar/msg00180.html

2. No PowerPC compilation targets in Xcode 4:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/xcode-users/2011/Mar/msg00215.html

3. Right-click most things; contextual-menu appears; choose help item.
http://lists.apple.com/archives/xcode-users/2011/Mar/msg00207.html


Lots of activity (and many complaints) on the Xcode list:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/xcode-users/2011/Mar/index.html

It may be worthwhile to read all the list posts since Xcode 4's release, just to find the gems of information.

Also, there is an "Xcode 4 Transition Guide" (google it) that many of the people complaining seem not to have read. So my simplest suggestion is to RTFM before making any decisions about Xcode 4.

 

In addition no 10.5 SDK although I've heard you can copy it from the Xcode 3 install and it still works fine (at least for i386).

Let's just hope Xcode 3 will work without problems on 10.7.

 

No PowerPC compilation. No Mac OS 10.5 SDK. Yeah! Good on Apple for having the chutzpah to break away from legacy.

Actually I do say that kind of tongue-in-cheek. I do understand that commercial developers need to maintain legacy versions of their software to support users using legacy hardware. But I do think it's better to have developers maintains legacy development environments instead of shackling legacy support on new development environments.

 

It doesn't come with the 10.5 SDK, but you can still set 10.5 as the deployment target, allowing you to support Leopard in your apps.