Using GIT In Xcode
Git has become a very popular version control system in iOS and Mac development. Git comes with a set of command line tools to check status, commit changes, view logs, make and merge branches, and coordinate commits with a remote repository. There are a number of desktop apps that can perform these functions, including Xcode. When I ask other iOS and Mac developers how they interact with Git, most say they use the command line or a separate desktop app like Tower. I find very few developers use Xcode for even some basic Git tasks, and many developers are not aware of the Git support Xcode offers.
For my own workflow, I like to minimize the number of tools used and number of switches between apps needed to complete a task. So, I decided to attempt to use Xcode exclusively to interact with Git and share my results. So far I have been pleasantly surprised at what all Xcode can do with Git. If you have not taken a look at Xcode’s support for Git, you may be surprised how much you can accomplish.
This article assumes basic familiarity with Xcode and Git, and describes Git functionality present in Xcode version 4.6.2. (more…)
The journey to disabling sleep with IOKit
If your app is fullscreen, like a game, has a presentation mode, or plays long running movie files, you’ll want to disable the display from sleeping. DVD Player and Keynote are perhaps the two most obvious examples of this functionality.
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Magical iPhone View Controllers
Update: This is documented behavior.
Every now and again while doing development you stumble upon something that makes you go, hmmmm. Those are normally the moments at which you have to ask yourself, “is this a bug or a feature”. If it’s a bug, then you should file a radar with Apple, however, what if it’s a feature? You blog about it, of course!
I have done a bit less iPhone development than Marcus, so he was a little stumped while looking through some of my code where I created a view controller using a simple alloc/init. Most interestingly is that fact that the app works. It loads the correct nib and displays the view just fine without any trouble. Notice I said alloc/init and not alloc/initWithNibName. How can this possibly work? How did my controller “know” which view to use?
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