Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
TIP
You can use Spaces to create a separate developer Space that's dedicated to Xcode and its supporting windows.
Day-to-day apps such as Mail can be kept in a different Space, minimizing clutter.
Exposé can be another timesaver. When you have many Xcode windows open at once, Exposé is by far the easiest
way to switch between them. You can set up Exposé and Spaces in the System Preferences.
The most luxurious and productive development environment has at least two monitors for code and at least
one further monitor for online browsing. The extra monitor may be on another machine, but it's more efficient
to use a three- or four-monitor Mac; it's often useful to copy and paste code directly into your project from the
documentation or other online sources.
Working with disk storage
Disk space and disk features can make a big difference to Xcode performance. Ideally, you should install Xcode
on your main Mac hard drive, allowing at least 20GB for a full install of two separate versions (active and beta)
with all documentation and your own project code.
Although it's not immediately obvious from the install options, Xcode can be installed and run on an external
drive. However, OS X support for external USB drives is temperamental, and external drives are likely to be
slower than internal disks. You should use a tool called SpindownHD in a tool collection called CHUD (Com-
puter Hardware Understanding Developer Tools) to control disk idle and sleep modes. SpindownHD isn't a
complete solution, but you can use it to extend spin-down times. Without it, Xcode sometimes crashes when it
accesses a disk that is sleeping or when a Mac wakes up after hibernating. CHUD and Spindown are installed
with Xcode. You can find Spindown in
<Macintosh Hard Disk>/Developer/Applications/
CHUD/Hardware Tools
.
CAUTION
The spin-down problem makes it difficult to keep folder and application shortcuts in the Finder window, where
they're most useful to you. For example, if you drag Xcode to Places so you can run it quickly and the disk it is in-
stalled on hibernates or sleeps, the link may disappear. If you have enough free space, installing on your Mac's
boot drive avoids this problem.
A Mac with an SSD (Solid State Drive) for OS X and Xcode can be a significant timesaver. Xcode 4 loads pro-
jects quickly but takes much longer to boot than Xcode 3. You can speed up the initial boot by running Xcode
from a faster-than-average conventional disk, a RAID 0 system (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), or an
SSD. This is a luxury option but is well worth considering for professional development.
Choosing peripherals
Peripherals can make a significant difference to your productivity. It's good practice to choose extras that feel
comfortable to work with and don't have quirks, design features, or extras that distract you.
Selecting a printer
