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Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

itunes.apple.com

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Re: Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

#12

Post by cycojesus »

microtonal wrote: post #5
cdcarter wrote: post #3

Glad to see it's back to free. Now I wish I didn't waste that $5...

"Waste" $5 for an toolset that could possibly make you a millionaire? Really, it's about the same price as a hammer...

Saving those $5 could just as possibly make him a millionaire.

Now, didn't Apple (or at least its fanboys army) said something like they couldn't legally make Xcode free to justify those 5 bucks? I'm perplexed...

Re: Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

#15

Post by to3m »

microtonal wrote: post #5
cdcarter wrote: post #3

Glad to see it's back to free. Now I wish I didn't waste that $5...

"Waste" $5 for an toolset that could possibly make you a millionaire? Really, it's about the same price as a hammer...

Have you used Xcode 4? :)

Compared to Xcode 3, it lacks significant functionality that is quite likely to cause you problems immediately: no scripts menu, no disassembly window, no search'n'replace in selection, no remote OS X debugging, no Interface Builder plugins. Adding new functionality is nice, but if you've done without it so far, you can keep doing without it. Taking functionality away, on the other hand...

Whilst I've no doubt that Xcode 4 will eventually become better than Xcode 3 in all respects (not that Xcode 3 was all that great to start with...), at the moment it is not. So you're paying $5 for something that could easily end up worse for you than something that is free!

I think "waste" is a reasonable way of putting it. Perhaps a touch over-dramatic for my taste, but reasonable nonetheless.

(DISCLAIMER: if you don't mind what's not in Xcode 4, $5 might not seem like a waste. Unfortunately people can only argue from their own experience. This argument is made from mine. I'm sure yours was more fun, but mine is all I've got.)

Re: Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

#16

Post by chc »

clobber wrote: post #9

Really great of Apple to make it require Lion. Release new OS product, shove it down devs throats.

Versions of Xcode have always been tied to versions of OS X. They actually did release Xcode 4 for Snow Leopard, which is more than they've done with any previous version, so complaining now of all times seems pretty odd.

Re: Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

#18

Post by marquis »

beagle3 wrote: post #10

Question to mac developers: Does Apple let you in any way develop/debug/test programs for older operating systems? If I bought a newly-released-today MacBookAir with Lion, but I want to develop software that would still run on 10.6 and 10.5 - what's the official (and unofficial) ways to do that?

We keep an older Mac Mini around running 10.4, 10.5 (and soon to include 10.6) for support of these older systems. We've also found that our universal binary has no issues whatsoever running on Lion, which is a relief as we still prefer Xcode 3.

Re: Xcode 4.1 now available free from the Mac App Store

#19

Post by chc »

cycojesus wrote: post #12
microtonal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Waste" $5 for an toolset that could possibly make you a millionaire? Really, it's about the same price as a hammer...

Saving those $5 could just as possibly make him a millionaire. Now, didn't Apple (or at least its fanboys army) said something like they couldn't legally make Xcode free to justify those 5 bucks? I'm perplexed...

The reasoning was that they couldn't release Xcode 4 free for Snow Leopard because of Apple's extremely conservative interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley. Xcode has always been free with new OS versions. They were only charging extra if you wanted to get it for the old OS.

(An extremely low price point like $5 is generally a tip-off that Apple is just charging a nominal fee to satisfy accounting rules.)

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