Dear Mac Addicts and Xcode enthusiasts...

[Matthew]

I need your input. We've been promising you improved support for Xcode projects, and yes we are working on it for v14.0.2. However, I'm finding that the current code for the project support isn't really salvagable. I'm better at bullets than at prose, so here goes:

• Project hierarchy, folders

The current code just gives you a flat list, and it's not even picking up all the files. This is being completely rewritten. We'll try to reflect in our project tree what the Xcode organization looks like.

• Invoking builds

Current code tries to divine the compiler flags and INCLUDE environment, etc and directly invoke gcc. But with complexity of newer project types (iPhone SDK, I'm looking at you...), this is a fool's errand. I'm really leaning toward simply invoking xcodebuild to let it handle building the projects. This is the same approach we take with Visual Studio solutions on Windows, where we call devenv.exe or msbuild.exe to handle building the projects.

• Adding files to projects

This is the sticking point, and the reason for my query. I don't think we'll be able re-engineer the ability to add new files to your project within SlickEdit before 14.0.2 is scheduled to ship this summer. Can you live with this limitation? My thought is that the current deficiencies need to be addressed now, even if it be at the expense of this convenience. We'd make adding new files to existing projects available in the next major release next spring.

• Other shortcuts

If you click on a .xib file or .plist file, what should happen? My thought is that it should come up in the text editor as XML, since the property list editor and Interface Builder are already available via Xcode. But then again, do you ever want to hand-edit an XIB?
What about .nib bundles? Should that be displayed as a directory with access to the underlying classes/info/objects.nib files? Or should it just be a shortcut to launch Interface Builder?
[/list]

I'd appreciate your feedback and thoughts on this. There isn't a lot of time before 14.0.2 is scheduled to be released, but I'd like to make SlickEdit as useful as possible when working with Xcode projects in the time available.

[spence]

My preferences:
1) Project hierarchies are definitely "nice to have" for me.
2) I don't mind what build system gets invoked, as long as I can see the compiler warnings and errors in the SlickEdit build window and get to the errors from there.
3) Adding files to the project is also a nice to have, but it's not essential for me. I'd rather have everything else supported ASAP than have to wait just for this feature.
4).plist files should be editable from within SlickEdit as xml files. That's actually far easier for me than the plist editor in XCode. I'd like Interface Builder to open for .xib files.

Looking forward to this release... XCode is nice, but I'm way more productive with SlickEdit.

Oh, what's the debugger support going to be like for iPhone development? Will I have to run XCode's debugger?

[rajkej]

I use SE on a MAC and my number one priority would be to port SE to a native MAC application rather than an X11 application. I realize this isn't what you are asking about...

[Matthew]

@rajkej: Your vote has been duly noted and recorded. FWIW, I'd like to see a native Mac version as well.

@spence: We probably won't be able to do any debugger integration this time 'round. As long as the iPhone SDK uses some flavor of gdb running against the iPhone simulator, it should be possible. But for right now, I'm focusing on getting the project system to be as complete as possible, and get the xcodebuild invocations set up. We also have a bit of work to do to improve the tagging for ObjC 2.0.

[magpie]

Please add my vote for native support. I'm now getting an error that it can't paste the clipboard format when I try to paste from other Mac apps! Perhaps since the most recent system update. Also note that the latest system includes changes to X11 and my fonts look a whole lot better.

[Matthew]

@magpie:
I too noticed (yesterday) that I can't copy/paste between native and X11 apps on my Leopard system. But even our internal builds of 14.0.2 seem to still be working fine on Tiger. At one point we were piggybacking on the Carbon pasteboard API, but this was abandoned due to some double-paste problems. I don't know if I can re-implement the pasteboard approach (or workaround the X11 changes) before 14.0.2 is ready, but I will look into it.

@everyone:
I've been toying with the idea of changing where the configuration is stored by default. My preference would be to store it under /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SlickEdit, with the versioned subdirectories under there, rather than the existing /Users/<username>/.slickedit location. Yea, Nay, Don't Care?

[rajkej]

I'd like to see the configuration located in a directory that does not start with '.' so that I can use finder to see the files without mucking with default settings. So the library directory is ok with me.

[SoftJunkie]

I also vote for Mac native support for Slickedit.

[microcode]

I'd like to see the configuration located in a directory that does not start with '.' so that I can use finder to see the files without mucking with default settings. So the library directory is ok with me.

Ditto.

I ended up creating a symlinked directory so I could easily get to files in the ".slickedit" directory. But having the config in a directory without the "." by default would be better.

[rajkej]

SE 14.0.2.2 puts the config in users/x/Library/Application Support/SlickEdit/version

[Udo]

- I would like to support the application folder as well..much more MAC like

And my biggest wish is a native MAC version. I have switched to another editor because of that, but I still miss SlickEdit

[lclevesy]

Thank you for your interest in SlickEdit offering a native Mac version. We are excited to announce that native Mac support will be offered in 2012. View the announcement here: http://community.slickedit.com/index.php?topic=7110.0.