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Apr 12, 2001
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Software developer Itty Bitty Apps has launched Reveal, a runtime inspector for iOS apps that runs on OS X. The software integrates tools such as Firebug and Apple's Web Inspector that enable the user to perform runtime inspection with different 2D and 3D visualisations for faster debugging. The user can also view hierarchies and edit an app in real-time with the built in tools, and also includes full support for both simulator and device for inspection.

reveal_1-800x458.jpg
Runtime inspection for iOS apps
Reveal brings the power of tools like Firebug and Web Inspector to iOS developers. See your application's view hierarchy at runtime with advanced 2D and 3D visualisations. Debug view layout and rendering problems in seconds.

Instrument your apps
Simply link your iOS application with the Reveal library, start it up, and you'll be able to see and interact with your application like never before.

See changes, live!
You can edit and modify views in your running application to see the effect immediately. No more recompiling to test simple visual changes.

Focus
View hierarchies can get complex. Simply double click a view to isolate it, and all its subviews. Use the path bar to navigate up the hierarchy, and use the history buttons to go back to where you've been.
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The software has also been given testimonials from developers of notable apps including Flipboard [Direct Link], Artsy [Direct Link], Cook - The World's Cook Book [Direct Link], and Alien Blue [Direct Link]. Reveal is now avaliable to purchase from the official Itty Bitty Apps web store, and is priced at $59 for educational use, $89 for a personal license, and $179 for a commercial seat license. The developer also offers a 30-day free trial of the software.

Article Link: iOS App Runtime Inspector 'Reveal' Launches for OS X
 
"iOS App Runtime Inspector reveals Launch for OS X"

That's what I read. Stupid Brain.
 
Great, now I have to build a stupid website just so I can try out this awesome looking software!

Come to think of it, it looks an awefull lot like Firefox's 3D web developer view:
gkXcjDE.png
 
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Sounds cool, but I wish more developer tools were priced like Unity or Sublime. Use it for free for most or all of your development period, and then pay when it turns out you've become fairly successful by using it.

Apple's pricing - program in Xcode and use the simulators forever, but then pay to distribute, is also pretty cool, I think, albeit not as cool as Unity's.

When you're an indie hobbiest or student, it's hard to come up with the money to pay for these tools. It's a lot easier if you've already discovered you can cover the costs and then some with whatever you've made.
 
Sounds cool, but I wish more developer tools were priced like Unity or Sublime. Use it for free for most or all of your development period, and then pay when it turns out you've become fairly successful by using it.

Apple's pricing - program in Xcode and use the simulators forever, but then pay to distribute, is also pretty cool, I think, albeit not as cool as Unity's.

When you're an indie hobbiest or student, it's hard to come up with the money to pay for these tools. It's a lot easier if you've already discovered you can cover the costs and then some with whatever you've made.


Great points all around.

I D/L'ed this and will probably get around to checking it out this weekend. I love the idea of being able to move through a view stack, get a sense of the layout/orders/etc.

We don't use IB for our main iOS app, so everything being done in code can result in hard to trace UI gremlins.
 
When you're an indie hobbiest or student, it's hard to come up with the money to pay for these tools. It's a lot easier if you've already discovered you can cover the costs and then some with whatever you've made.

Reveal is a great, useful tool; I've used it maybe three times over the last month to great success.

The price of it is pretty surprising; to the point where I can't justify $89 for something I'd use so rarely. It's a shame, I really hope they can find a way to reduce it.
 
Reveal is a great, useful tool; I've used it maybe three times over the last month to great success.

The price of it is pretty surprising; to the point where I can't justify $89 for something I'd use so rarely. It's a shame, I really hope they can find a way to reduce it.

Wait, what? You've used it three times in just the last month to "great success", and you're complaining about 90 bucks? I'm assuming you are a professional developer, and I won't ask you your rate, but Reveal is priced pretty reasonably for something that might be used a few times a month and might solve a bug or reduce the time needed to find the bug. It would pay for itself very quickly.

My only concern to Reveal is adding yet another 3rd party lib to projects and the instability issues that can arise from someone else's code. It seems like this utility is pretty stable though.
 
Wait, what? You've used it three times in just the last month to "great success", and you're complaining about 90 bucks? I'm assuming you are a professional developer, and I won't ask you your rate, but Reveal is priced pretty reasonably for something that might be used a few times a month and might solve a bug or reduce the time needed to find the bug. It would pay for itself very quickly.

My only concern to Reveal is adding yet another 3rd party lib to projects and the instability issues that can arise from someone else's code. It seems like this utility is pretty stable though.

He didn't specify how much time was saved each time he used it. At my current pay rate, it'd be worth the investment if it saved me just two hours of my time. But I don't write iOS code at work, I write Python and web code at work, so this would be a just for my own side projects development tool. Sometimes my side projects end up being profitable. Most of the time they're total duds. Thus why I'd like to use this and see that I've made a successful product because of it before I pay for it out of pocket (I'm still in school and I still have a lot of debt to pay off. I'm actually making just a tiny bit more than I'm spending right now, so I'm actually slowly paying off my debts... once I'm out of school I expect to be able to pay off the remaining debt pretty quickly.)
 
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