macOS Xcode 3 vs Xcode 4 when dealing with Objective-C

[timebourne]

I know how to use Xcode pretty well and I've mastered C++, and now I want to move onto Objective-C, however my Mac runs on Tiger(OS X 10.5) and I can only use Xcode 3. The problem with that is that I've ordered a book that assumes you have Xcode 4, and Apple updated Objective-C and so some things that are new do not work for Xcode 3(for example I cannot use command line tool and @autoreleasepool doesn't work either.

I won't be upgrading my OS for another 2 years so and I can't return the book and I don't think I'll be able to get an older edition. What do any of you suggest I do? Is there somewhere where I can find the differences between Objective-C before this change? Have any of you dealt with this too?

 

[Miguel Cunha]

Which OS and book?

Do you mean Tiger (10.4), or Leopard (10.5)?

What's the name of the book?

 

[timebourne]

Oh wow sorry I meant Leopard(I don't know why I put Tiger haha); I have 10.5.
The book is called Programming in Objetive-C Fourth Edition by Stephen G. Kochan. I was considering updating to Snow Leopard(I used to have that on my computer but long story short I had to get my hard drive replaced and I could only get Leopard) but I don't know if I can use Xcode 4 on Snow Leopard.

Also, do you suggest a different book? I did a little bit of researching and this book kept popping up with good remarks so I decided to get it. Or would it be better to have multiple sources? I wasn't intending on jumping to iOS first, I want to do some Mac app programing first so I thought getting a book on Objective-C rather than iOS programming but I know I'll end up also coding for the iPhone. I know C++ so I have a good foundation and what I've gone over in Objective-C so far makes sense mostly but I don't understand some things because I don't have Xcode 4.

 

[fogelbaby]

Try online training

1) suggest you take the Stanford iOS training course through iTunes U. If you use the course from 2 years ago it will be XCode 3 based.

2) Why not just upgrade to snow leopard? It does support XCode 4 and is a far better system than Tiger.

 

[Miguel Cunha]

Advice or a tip

1) suggest you take the Stanford iOS training course through iTunes U. If you use the course from 2 years ago it will be XCode 3 based.

Excelent suggestion

2) Why not just upgrade to snow leopard? It does support XCode 4 and is a far better system than Tiger.

He's right. It is.
Unless your mac is a PowerPC, like mine.
If so, we're in the same boat - stuck in 10.5.8 and Xode 3.1.4.

Oh wow sorry I meant Leopard(I don't know why I put Tiger haha); I have 10.5.
The book is called Programming in Objetive-C Fourth Edition by Stephen G. Kochan. I was considering updating to Snow Leopard(I used to have that on my computer but long story short I had to get my hard drive replaced and I could only get Leopard) but I don't know if I can use Xcode 4 on Snow Leopard.

Yes, you can.

Also, do you suggest a different book?

I'm searching for one myself.

There are books dedicated to Xcode like "Xcode 3 Unleashed" by Fritz Anderson or "Professional Xcode 3" by James Bucanek.

But I don't know if these are the must haves.
To anyone listening it would be nice have more suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[timebourne]

Thanks for the help! I went in today to upgrade to Snow Leopard. The reason I was hesitant was because I thought Snow Leopard still had a cost (I don't know why I never thought to look it up) but it doesn't anymore, so I went ahead with it(because now I knew Xcode 4 ran on Snow Leopard.)
Thanks for the suggestion! I've checked out some of the lectures on it and it seemed pretty good! I'll be sure to use it as a valuable resource.

EDIT:
You have to pay 99$$ and become a registered developer @ apple in order to get Xcode for Snow Leopard. Are the differences between Objective-C in Xcode 3 vs Xcode 4 great?

 

[Ap0ks]

EDIT:
You have to pay 99$$ and become a registered developer @ apple in order to get Xcode for Snow Leopard. Are the differences between Objective-C in Xcode 3 vs Xcode 4 great?

You can download Xcode with a free Apple developer account, you only need to pay $99 when you want to test your application on mobile devices or submit to the App Store

 

[timebourne]

You can download Xcode with a free Apple developer account, you only need to pay $99 when you want to test your application on mobile devices or submit to the App Store

Oh I'm sorry I wasn't very clear; you can download Xcode 3 with a free account, however there is no Xcode 4.2 for Snow Leopard(and snow leopard only, even though it supports it) if you have a free account, you must have Lion or ML if you want Xcode 4 for free. In order to have Xcode 4.2 for Snow Leopard you must have a paid account, which is total BS.
I might just become registered developer because I do plan on creating apps to submit to the App store; however, it depends, I'm still thinking on it.

 

[chown33]

I might just become registered developer because I do plan on creating apps to submit to the App store; however, it depends, I'm still thinking on it.

I think you should slow down and do some planning.

You won't upgrade your OS for 2 years, and in that time it is quite likely that the App Store will have moved its minimum requirements for submissions even higher than they are now. That makes it very likely that the older and much buggier Xcode 4 that currently runs on Snow Leopard will no longer be suitable for building App Store submissions.

You have Leopard, and you said you had Snow Leopard but aren't using it, because your HD was replaced. But if you have Snow Leopard discs, you can reinstall that on top of Leopard. If you don't have Snow Leopard discs, you can still buy them from Apple.

You don't say why you won't upgrade your OS for 2 years. Maybe it's because your current computer model won't support any OS version later than Snow Leopard. I don't know; that's just a guess. If your hardware supports Lion or Mtn Lion, you'd be much better off upgrading to that rather than going to the half-way point of Snow Leopard.

Regarding books for Xcode 3, I don't think it matters that much which one you buy. They're all old and outdated, so you should be able to find them cheap or even free. Unless the book is complete crap, or riddled with errors, pretty much anything will get you started. No book is going to work like magic, so you need to use other resources. For example, I easily found several Xcode 3 tutorials online simply by googling xcode 3 tutorial. Xcode itself has builtin docs, too, so learn to use that.

Every one of the above items (book, dev registration, OS upgrade, etc.) has a cost associated with it. There's both a monetary cost and a cost in time. The time cost of learning old Xcode, or using old OS versions, may well be worth the $30 or whatever to simply upgrade to the latest and greatest. On the other hand, maybe you're perfectly happy to incrementally upgrade the OS, Xcode, and the books over time.

Since you haven't given any explanations for why you won't upgrade your OS, maybe none of the above is relevant for you. If I were doing it, I'd be looking very carefully at what the time investment and the monetary expenses would be for each possible path. In short, planning.