4 ms·

I've been running AppCode and find I can almost do everything from the keyboard. XCode requires way too much mousing.

jcizzle 15y ago
Given that nearly every item, gesture, etc. in Xcode has a shortcut and you can modify these shortcuts to whatever you like, I'm inclined to believe you are just trolling for AppCode.
- ned_roberts 15y ago
  Sorry, I should have explained more. You're correct, you can bind keyboard shortcuts to most actions in Xcode. The problem is that the UI seems to have been built with the mouse in mind, with keyboard navigation as an afterthought. Is it really all that useful that I can pull up a dropdown menu with a shortcut if I still have to arrow up/down to pick my file? AppCode allows me to pull up a list of recent files with a shortcut and has the last file edited as the top option. This allows me to quickly switch between two files. In Xcode I can pull up the recent files menu, but it's not ordered in terms of recent usage, so I'm constantly having to find my place in it. And there are some functions I couldn't find a way to bind. Can I bind a key to 'jump to definition'? Or how about 'find usages' or 'rename variable'? I tried to make Xcode work for me, but I just felt like I was having to fight against how Apple wanted me to use it. It could be that coming from the Java world and using IDEA I was just more used to the default shortcuts. But I really think that IntelliJ puts a lot of thought into keyboard navigation and builds the UI to be more conducive to keyboard navigation.
  - jcizzle 15y ago
    You are correct in that some shortcuts do require a click, and I suggest you file bug reports with Apple (I've filed a few). I believe that since Xcode 4 is quite new, they just haven't gotten this far yet. I, for one, would love a keyboard shortcut to jump to the definition of the symbol my insertion pointer is in; but I've gotten so used to cmd-clicking the symbol that at this point, I probably wouldn't use it.
- johnsonman 15y ago
  It would be nice if I could set shortcuts that don't include the command button. I'm trying to set next/previous tab to be ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab, but I'm required to use the command button so it breaks the standard shortcut keys that pretty much every other tabbed application use.
  - jcizzle 15y ago
    Safari uses Cmd-Shift-{ and Cmd-Shift-} to switch between tabs, as does Xcode. However, you can change them to whatever you like by selecting Preferences->Key Bindings and searching for "tab"
    - johnsonman 15y ago
      I've done that, and unfortunately attempting to switch those to ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab instead changes them to cmd+ctrl+tab and cmd+ctrl+shift+tab with no way to not use the command button.

Given that nearly every item, gesture, etc. in Xcode has a shortcut and you can modify these shortcuts to whatever you like, I'm inclined to believe you are just trolling for AppCode.

ned_roberts 15y ago
Sorry, I should have explained more. You're correct, you can bind keyboard shortcuts to most actions in Xcode. The problem is that the UI seems to have been built with the mouse in mind, with keyboard navigation as an afterthought. Is it really all that useful that I can pull up a dropdown menu with a shortcut if I still have to arrow up/down to pick my file? AppCode allows me to pull up a list of recent files with a shortcut and has the last file edited as the top option. This allows me to quickly switch between two files. In Xcode I can pull up the recent files menu, but it's not ordered in terms of recent usage, so I'm constantly having to find my place in it. And there are some functions I couldn't find a way to bind. Can I bind a key to 'jump to definition'? Or how about 'find usages' or 'rename variable'? I tried to make Xcode work for me, but I just felt like I was having to fight against how Apple wanted me to use it. It could be that coming from the Java world and using IDEA I was just more used to the default shortcuts. But I really think that IntelliJ puts a lot of thought into keyboard navigation and builds the UI to be more conducive to keyboard navigation.
- jcizzle 15y ago
  You are correct in that some shortcuts do require a click, and I suggest you file bug reports with Apple (I've filed a few). I believe that since Xcode 4 is quite new, they just haven't gotten this far yet. I, for one, would love a keyboard shortcut to jump to the definition of the symbol my insertion pointer is in; but I've gotten so used to cmd-clicking the symbol that at this point, I probably wouldn't use it.
johnsonman 15y ago
It would be nice if I could set shortcuts that don't include the command button. I'm trying to set next/previous tab to be ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab, but I'm required to use the command button so it breaks the standard shortcut keys that pretty much every other tabbed application use.
- jcizzle 15y ago
  Safari uses Cmd-Shift-{ and Cmd-Shift-} to switch between tabs, as does Xcode. However, you can change them to whatever you like by selecting Preferences->Key Bindings and searching for "tab"
  - johnsonman 15y ago
    I've done that, and unfortunately attempting to switch those to ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab instead changes them to cmd+ctrl+tab and cmd+ctrl+shift+tab with no way to not use the command button.