The Unofficial Guide to xcconfig files
Great post by Sam Marshall on xcconfig files. It's possible you haven't dug into them at all yet as there is very little documentation on them. However, they are gaining popularity and can make the settings for your app much more readable and explicit.
Using xcconfig to Configure to Your Developer Account
I'll push people to learn about xcconfig
files at every opportunity, so I'm grateful for Junda Ong provided me with a great opportunity this week. He talks about why you should use config files to set your development team and how to do it. While we're on the subject, you do know about James Dempsey's Build Settings Extractor project, right?
Xcode Build Configuration Files
I feel like I recommend using .xcconfig
files far too often in this newsletter. 😬 If you're still resisting them then though, maybe this NSHipster guide by Mattt will spur you into action?
Great post by Peter Hosey on which additional warnings he switches on, and why. I think we can all agree that there are certain warnings which are off by default which will not get in the way if switched on, however USE ALL THE WARNINGS is always going to introduce too much noise to be useful. This is based on his 2009 post but updated for our new tools.
I linked to Sam Marshall's fantastic guide to xcconfig files back in Issue 200. This week it was followed up with this more general guide to Xcode covering everything from project and workspace files to dependencies and schemes.
Care and Feeding of Xcode Configurations
Steve Kalkwarf on why xcconfig files are wonderful, and why you should use them. If you're not already on board, read this article, but even If you are, read this article 😀 as it contains some fantastic tips (like this useful repository listing all Xcode 9 warning and error settings). Also on the same topic this week, Paulo Andrade also had some good advice for using xcconfig files to deal better with build variations.
BuildSettingExtractor and the new Xcode build system
I saw this announcement of how BuildSettingExtractor worked with Xcode 9's new build system this week. Turns out I had missed the original announcement back in 2015, and should have linked to it then. Let's set that right now by saying you should check this out if you're still not using xcconfig files!
Working with Xcode configuration files
Every time I I mention xcconfig
files, I get emails from people who are only just discovering this fantastic feature in Xcode. So, let this great article from Natascha Fadeeva be this year's reminder that you should investigate if you're not already using them! 😬 Seriously, though, this post is an excellent introduction to the feature.
I first linked to this tool from James Dempsey back in Issue 306. At the time you had to build it yourself from source, but it's now available as a pre-built app. It's still a great idea to use .xcconfig files, and this tool still makes it trivial to get started, so you should check it out if you haven't already!
xcprojectlint: A security blanket for Xcode project files
Would you like to automate some consistency in your Xcode project files with checks for settings defined at the project level (rather than in an xcconfig), missing files and empty file groups? This tool does exactly that, and more. Also, I like the way it's described:
Provides a security blanket, ensuring neither your co-workers, nor git screw up your Xcode project file.
😂