User interface

Windows and views

Xcode has several navigation views types: navigators (shown on the left-hand side), inspectors (on the right-hand side), library views (in the bottom-right corner), and several editor modes. In AppCode, similar navigation views are shown in tool windows or dialogs.

See the tables below to learn how Xcode's navigation views correspond to those in AppCode.

Editor modes

There are several editor modes in Xcode such as Standard editor, Version editor, and Assistant editor. Let’s take a look at how these modes are connected with the features of AppCode’s editor.

Standard editor

This is the only mode of the AppCode editor right now, and its purpose is basically the same as in Xcode – it’s where you edit your source code.

AppCode also provides many helpful controls on the gutter and scrollbar area of the editor window:

The gutter controls

• Code folding controls.

  

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• Line numbers.

  

• Gutter icons for navigating the code hierarchy, allowing you to jump to overridden methods , super methods , super types , subclasses , and more.

  

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• Code structure outlines that appear on placing the caret at curly braces {}.

  

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• Run and Run All buttons for Run a single test running test methods and classes.

  

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• Regions showing VCS changes.

  

The scrollbar area controls

• Code analysis indicator that shows if the code analysis is currently in progress.

• Warning and error positions in the code.

• Occurrences of the currently selected code symbols in the code.

• Search result marks.

If you hover over one of the marks on the scrollbar area, the code lens will show the code around that mark:

There are some standard editor actions available via pressing Control in Xcode. AppCode doesn’t have direct counterparts for these actions, but most of them can be accomplished in a slightly different way:

Xcode	AppCode	Shortcut
Show related items
Recent files	Recent files popup	Ctrl+E
Counterparts	In Objective-C, a similar action can be accomplished by navigating to related symbol.	Ctrl+Alt+Home
Superclasses	Go to super method/class	Ctrl+U
Subclasses, Categories, Protocols, Siblings	Go to implementation	Ctrl+Alt+B
Includes/Included by	Imports Hierarchy for Objective-C	Alt+Shift+H
Callers/Callees	For Objective-C/C/C++, this can be achieved via one of the views of the Hierarchy tool window (Call Hierarchy, Method Hierarchy, or Type Hierarchy).	Alt+Shift+H/Ctrl+Shift+H/Ctrl+H
Test classes	Navigate to test for Objective-C	Ctrl+Shift+T
Test callers, Preprocess, Assembly, Disassembly, Generated Interface, User interfaces	—
Show previous/next history	—
Show top level items/group files	Jump to Navigation bar	Alt+Home
Show document items	Structure tool window/File Structure popup/Context Info	Alt+7/Ctrl+F12/Alt+Q

Assistant editor

There is no such mode in AppCode, but you can edit multiple files side by side.

To split the current tab, right-click the tab header and select Split Right.

To place one tab under another, right-click the tab header and select Split Down.

Most of the Assistant editor functionality is available as various navigation actions in AppCode.

Version editor

AppCode’s editor highlights changed pieces of code by default and indicates which regions were changed on the gutter:

To compare the current file state with one of the previous revisions, select Git | Current File | Compare with Revision from the main menu and select the revision with which you want to compare the current file.

AppCode’s analog of the Blame view is the Annotate action, available via Git | Current File | Annotate with Git Blame.

The Git log is available on the Log tab of the Version Control tool window Alt+9.

Distraction free mode

Sometimes you want to just edit the code and be focused on a simple window without many controls catching our attention. In AppCode, you can hide all the toolbars and tool windows. To do this, press Ctrl+Shift+A and search for the Distraction Free Mode.

AppCode views

AppCode offers several helpful navigation views that are not available in Xcode, such as:

• Files: an additional helpful mode for AppCode’s Project tool window Alt+1. It shows all the files inside the directory where the .xcworkspace or .xcproject file is located. Using this view, you can easily open and view any file that is not included in your project. You can also configure your custom scopes to be displayed in the Project tool window.

• Bookmarks Shift+F11: a dialog that shows all the bookmarks in your code that you can set with F11.

• The TODO tool window shows all the TODO comments in your code.

To learn more about these and other navigation views, see the Code navigation section.

Tabs

Unlike Xcode, which uses a single area for displaying the source code by default, AppCode displays it in separate tabs.

You can also change the tab location in Preferences | Editor | General | Editor Tabs.

IDE and editor themes

Xcode has several editor themes and a single IDE look and feel. AppCode has three bundled IDE themes as well as many custom IDE themes available from our plugin repository.

You can select themes in Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | Appearance:

• Darcula: a dark theme which is intended to look the same in all JetBrains IDEs. It includes custom controls designed to fit any platform.

  

• IntelliJ Light/macOS Light: these themes are designed to use the native platform look as much as possible.

  

• High Contrast: this theme is useful for people with a vision impairment.

  

For each IDE theme, you can additionally select the editor color scheme in Preferences | Editor | Color Scheme. AppCode has also several TextMate color schemes bundled and an Xcode scheme to match the colors of the Default Xcode editor theme.

You can also import your custom Xcode themes by clicking in Preferences | Editor | Color Scheme | General and selecting the dropdown item at Import Scheme | Import from Xcode.

note

There still will be a difference between the code highlighting in Xcode and AppCode, mostly because AppCode currently does not have separate highlighting for library and project symbols, or for declarations and usages (except for methods and functions).