>Xcode and Visual Studio are made for developing software in closed systems... Xcode allows you to write and debug code for a specific compiler (like Clang or

>Xcode and Visual Studio are made for developing software in closed systems... Xcode allows you to write and debug code for a specific compiler (like Clang or GCC). If you choose to use Emacs instead, you would typically use the same compiler as you'd use with Xcode, just a different way of editing and debugging your code. But whether or not you write software that is "closed" or "open" or "portable" or "platform specific" is a choice for the project, not the editor. Xcode is not for writing software in a closed system, it is for writing software, period. If you want to write software that is unique to OSX or iOS (using Apple APIs) you can do so more easily with Xcode, but a lot of my projects are command line tools that are used in any unix/linux variant, including OSX, and I choose to use Xcode.