Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 15, released on September 18, 2023, and is available free of charge via the Mac App Store and the Apple Developer website.
Before Xcode, Apple offered developers Project Builder and Interface Builder to develop Mac OS X applications.
Major features
Xcode supports
source code for the programming languages: Swift, C++,
Objective-C, Objective-C++, Java,
AppleScript, Python, Ruby,
ResEdit (Rez), and C, with a variety of programming models, including but not limited to Cocoa, Carbon, and Java. Third parties have added support for
GNU Pascal,
,
Ada,
C#,
Go,
,
and D.
Xcode can build fat binary (universal binary) files containing code for multiple architectures with the Mach-O executable format. These helped ease the transitions from 32-bit PowerPC to 64-bit PowerPC, from PowerPC to Intel x86, from 32-bit to 64-bit Intel, and most recently from Intel x86 to Apple silicon by allowing developers to distribute a single application to users and letting the operating system automatically choose the appropriate architecture at runtime. Using the iOS SDK, tvOS SDK, and watchOS SDK, Xcode can also be used to compile and debug applications for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Xcode includes the GUI tool Instruments, which runs atop a dynamic tracing framework, DTrace, created by Sun Microsystems and released as part of OpenSolaris.
Xcode also integrates built-in support for version control using the Git version control system and protocol, allowing the user to create and clone Git repositories (which can be hosted on source code repository hosting sites such as GitHub, Bitbucket, and Perforce, or self-hosted using open-source software such as GitLab), and to commit, push, and pull changes, all from within Xcode, automating tasks that would traditionally be performed by using Git from the command line.
Composition
The main application of the suite is the integrated development environment (IDE), also named Xcode. The Xcode suite includes most of Apple's developer documentation, and built-in Interface Builder, an application used to construct graphical user interfaces.
Up to Xcode 4.1, the Xcode suite included a modified version of the GNU Compiler Collection. In Xcode 3.1 up to Xcode 4.6.3, it included the LLVM-GCC compiler, with front ends from the GNU Compiler Collection and a code generator based on
LLVM.
In Xcode 3.2 and later, it included the
Clang C/C++/Objective-C compiler, with newly-written front ends and a code generator based on LLVM, and the Clang static analyzer.
Starting with Xcode 4.2, the Clang compiler became the default compiler,
Starting with Xcode 5.0, Clang was the only compiler provided.
Up to Xcode 4.6.3, the Xcode suite used the GNU Debugger (GDB) as the back-end for the IDE's debugger. Starting with Xcode 4.3, the LLDB debugger was also provided; starting with Xcode 4.5 LLDB replaced GDB as the default back-end for the IDE's debugger.
Playgrounds
The Playgrounds feature of Xcode provides an environment for rapid experimentation and development in the Swift programming language. The original version of the feature was announced and released by
Apple Inc on June 2, 2014, during WWDC 2014.
Playgrounds provide a testing ground that renders developer code in real time. They have the capability of evaluating and displaying the results of single expressions as they are coded (in line or on a side bar), providing rapid feedback to the programmer. This type of development environment, known as a read-eval-print loop (or REPL) is useful for learning, experimenting and fast prototyping.
The Playgrounds feature was developed by the Developer Tools department at Apple. According to Chris Lattner, the inventor of Swift Programming Language and Senior Director and Architect at the Developer Tools Department, Playgrounds was "heavily influenced by Bret Victor's ideas, by Light Table and by many other interactive systems".
In September 2016, the Swift Playgrounds application for iPad (also available on macOS starting in February 2020) was released, incorporating these ideas into an educational tool. Xcode's Playgrounds feature continued development, with a new step-by-step execution feature introduced in Xcode 10 at WWDC 2018.
Removed features
Formerly, Xcode supported distributing a product build process over multiple systems. One technology involved was named
Shared Workgroup Build, which used the
Bonjour protocol to automatically discover systems providing compiler services, and a modified version of the free software product
distcc to facilitate the distribution of workloads. Earlier versions of Xcode provided a system named
Dedicated Network Builds. These features are absent in the supported versions of Xcode.
Xcode also includes Apple's WebObjects tools and frameworks for building Java web applications and web services (formerly sold as a separate product). As of Xcode 3.0, Apple dropped[ ] WebObjects development inside Xcode; WOLips
Version history
1.x series
Xcode 1.0 was released in fall 2003. Xcode 1.0 was based on
Project Builder, but had an updated
user interface (UI), ZeroLink, Fix & Continue, distributed build support, and Code Sense indexing.
The next significant release, Xcode 1.5, had better code completion and an improved debugger.
2.x series
Xcode 2.0 was released with Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger". It included the
Quartz Composer visual programming language, better Code Sense indexing for Java, and
Apache Ant support. It also included the Apple Reference Library tool, which allows searching and reading online documentation from Apple's website and documentation installed on a local computer.
Xcode 2.1 could create universal binary files. It supported shared precompiled headers, unit testing targets, conditional breakpoints, and watchpoints. It also had better dependency analysis.
The final version of Xcode for Mac OS X v10.4 was 2.5.
3.x series
Xcode 3.0 was released with Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard". Notable changes since 2.1 include
the
DTrace debugging tool (now named Instruments), refactoring support, context-sensitive documentation, and
Objective-C 2.0 with garbage collection. It also supports Project Snapshots, which provide a basic form of version control; Message Bubbles, which show build errors debug values alongside code; and building four-architecture fat binaries (32 and 64-bit Intel and PowerPC).
Xcode 3.1 was an update release of the developer tools for Mac OS X, and was the same version included with the iPhone SDK. It could target non-Mac OS X platforms, including iPhone OS 2.0. It included the GCC 4.2 and LLVM GCC 4.2 compilers. Another new feature since Xcode 3.0 is that Xcode's SCM support now includes Subversion 1.5.
Xcode 3.2 was released with Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" and installs on no earlier version of OS X. It supports static program analysis, among other features. It also drops official support for targeting versions earlier than iPhone OS 3.0. But it is still possible to target older versions, and the simulator supports iPhone OS 2.0 through 3.1. Also, Java support is "exiled" in 3.2 to the organizer.
Xcode 3.2.6 is the last version that can be downloaded for free for users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (though it’s not the last version that supports Snow Leopard; 4.2 is). Downloading Xcode 3.2.6 requires a free registration at Apple's developer site.
4.x series
In June 2010, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference version 4 of Xcode was announced during the Developer Tools State of the Union address. Version 4 of the developer tools consolidates the Xcode editing tools and Interface Builder into one application, among other enhancements.
Apple released the final version of Xcode 4.0 on March 9, 2011. The software was made available for free to all registered members of the $99 per year Mac Developer program and the $99 per year iOS Developer program. It was also sold for $4.99 to non-members on the Mac App Store (no longer available). Xcode 4.0 drops support for many older systems, including all PowerPC development and software development kits (SDKs) for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and all iOS SDKs older than 4.3. The deployment target can still be set to produce binaries for those older platforms, but for Mac OS platforms, one is then limited to creating x86 and x86-64 binaries. Later, Xcode was free to the general public. Before version 4.1, Xcode cost $4.99.
Xcode 4.1 was made available for free on July 20, 2011 (the day of Mac OS X Lion's release) to all users of Mac OS X Lion on the Mac App Store. On August 29, 2011, Xcode 4.1 was made available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard for members of the paid Mac or iOS developer programs.
On October 12, 2011, Xcode 4.2 was released concurrently with the release of iOS 5.0, and it included many more and improved features, such as storyboarding and automatic reference counting (ARC).
Xcode 4.3, released on February 16, 2012, is distributed as one application bundle, Xcode.app, installed from the Mac App Store. Xcode 4.3 reorganizes the Xcode menu to include development tools.
Xcode 4.4 was released on July 25, 2012.
On September 19, 2012, iOS 6 and Xcode 4.5 were released. Xcode added support for iOS 6 and the 4-inch Retina Display on iPhone 5 and iPod Touch 5th generation. It also brought some new Objective-C features to iOS, simplified localization, and added auto-layout support for iOS.
On January 28, 2013, iOS 6.1 and Xcode 4.6 were released.
5.x series
On June 10, 2013, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, version 5 of Xcode was announced.
On September 18, 2013, Xcode 5.0 was released. It shipped with iOS 7 and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion SDKs. However, support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks was only available in beta versions. Xcode 5.0 also added a version of
Clang generating 64-bit ARM code for iOS 7. Apple removed support for building garbage collected Cocoa binaries in Xcode 5.1.
6.x series
On June 2, 2014, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced version 6 of Xcode. One of the most notable features was support for Swift, an all-new programming language developed by Apple. Xcode 6 also included features like
Playgrounds and live debugging tools.
On September 17, 2014, at the same time, iOS 8 and Xcode 6 were released. Xcode could be downloaded on the Mac App Store.
7.x series
On June 8, 2015, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 7 was announced. It introduced support for Swift 2, and Metal for
OS X, and added support for deploying on iOS devices without an Apple Developer account.
Xcode 7 was released on September 16, 2015.
8.x series
On June 13, 2016, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 8 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. It introduced support for Swift 3.
Xcode 8 was released on September 13, 2016.
9.x series
On June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 9 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. It introduced support for Swift 4 and Metal 2. It also introduced remote debugging on
iOS and
tvOS devices wirelessly, through Wi-Fi.
Xcode 9 was publicly released on September 19, 2017.
10.x series
On June 4, 2018, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 10 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 10 introduced support for the Dark Mode announced for
macOS Mojave, the collaboration platforms
Bitbucket and
GitLab (in addition to already supported
GitHub), training machine learning models from playgrounds, and the new features in Swift 4.2 and Metal 2.1, as well as improvements to the editor and the project build system.
Xcode 10 also dropped support for building 32-bit
macOS apps
[,] and no longer supports Subversion integration.
Xcode 10 was publicly released on September 17, 2018.
11.x series
On June 3, 2019, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 11 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 11 introduced support for the new features in Swift 5.1, as well as the new SwiftUI framework (although the interactive UI tools are available only when running under
MacOS Catalina).
It also supports building iPad applications that run under macOS; includes integrated support for the Swift Package Manager; and contains further improvements to the editor, including a "minimap" that gives an overview of a source code file with quick navigation.
Xcode 11 requires macOS 10.14 or later
and Xcode 11.4 requires 10.15 or later.
Xcode 11 was publicly released on September 20, 2019.
12.x series
On June 22, 2020, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 12 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 12 introduced support for Swift 5.3 and requires macOS 10.15.4 or later. Xcode 12 dropped building apps for iOS 8 and the lowest version of iOS supported by Xcode 12 built apps is iOS 9. Xcode 12.1 also dropped support for building apps for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The minimum version of macOS supported by Xcode 12.1 built apps is OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Xcode 12 was publicly released on September 16, 2020.
13.x series
On June 7, 2021, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 13 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. The new version introduced support for Swift 5.5 and requires macOS 11.3 or later. Xcode 13 contains SDKs for iOS / iPadOS 15,
MacOS Monterey,
WatchOS, and
TvOS. Xcode 13’s major features include the new concurrency model in Swift projects,
improved support for
version control providers (such as
GitHub), including the ability to browse, view, and comment on
Pull request right in the app interface, and support for Xcode Cloud, Apple’s newly-launched CI/CD service (it also has a web version).
Xcode 13 was publicly released on September 20, 2021.
14.x series
On June 6, 2022, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 14 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 14 dropped support for building 32-bit
iOS apps.
Xcode 14 dropped support for building apps for iOS 9 and 10 (these versions of iOS supported 32-bit iOS apps) and the minimum version of iOS supported by Xcode 14 built apps is iOS 11. Xcode 14 also dropped building apps for macOS 10.12 Sierra. The minimum version of macOS supported by Xcode 14 built apps is macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
Xcode 14 was publicly released on September 12, 2022.
15.x series
On June 5, 2023, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 15 was announced; a beta version was released the same day. Xcode 15 dropped support for building apps for iOS 11 and the minimum version of iOS supported by Xcode 15 built apps is iOS 12.
Xcode 15 was publicly released on September 18, 2023.
16.x series
On June 10, 2024, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Xcode version 16 was announced; a beta version was released the same day.
Version comparison table
|
| | Discontinued | | Current release | | Beta |
Xcode 1.0 - Xcode 2.x (before iOS support)
Xcode 3.0 - Xcode 4.x
Xcode 5.0 - 6.x (since arm64 support)
Xcode 7.0 - 10.x (since Free On-Device Development)
Xcode 11.0 - 14.x (since SwiftUI framework)
Xcode 15.0 - (since visionOS support)
Toolchain versions
|
| | Discontinued | | Current release | | Beta |
Xcode 1.0 - Xcode 2.x (before iOS support)
Xcode 3.0 - Xcode 4.x
Xcode 5.0 - 6.x (since arm64 support)
Xcode 7.0 - 10.x (since Free On-Device Development)
Xcode 11.0 - 14.x (since SwiftUI framework)
Xcode 15.0 - (since visionOS support)
See also
External links
