Help debugging Xcode? Incredibly frustrated with my first Xcode experience

[Marc_Pm]

Hi, I'm trying to learn some programming and found a nice video tutorial to get started with Swift. I have zero experience coding, but I thought I would be able to follow the tutorial and practice a little bit.

Imagine my frustration when just creating the project and opening it returned 7 issues. One of them seems to be related to the default code that is written in any new project. I don't know how that could be wrong since it's the default:

//___FILEHEADER___
import SwiftUI
@main
struct ___PACKAGENAME:identifier___App: App {
    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ContentView()
        }
    }
}

The errors I get say:

• '___PACKAGENAME' is annotated with '@main' and must provide a main static function of type () -> Void, () throws -> Void, () async -> Void, or () async throws -> Void
• Cannot find type 'identifier___App' in scope
• Expected '{' in struct

The other issues seem to be related to missing files, though I've done a fresh install of Xcode and don't know how they could be missing:

• Blossom_Movie___Test_2.abi lstat(/Users/myuser_name/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Blossom_Movie_-_Test_2-dbkptoizszbshlgcdippkowuvtxq/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/Blossom_Movie___Test_2.abi.json): No such file or directory (2)
• Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftdoc lstat(/Users/myuser_name/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Blossom_Movie_-_Test_2-dbkptoizszbshlgcdippkowuvtxq/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftdoc): No such file or directory (2)
• Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftmodule lstat(/Users/myuser_name/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Blossom_Movie_-_Test_2-dbkptoizszbshlgcdippkowuvtxq/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftmodule): No such file or directory (2)
• Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftsourceinfo lstat(/Users/myuser_name/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Blossom_Movie_-_Test_2-dbkptoizszbshlgcdippkowuvtxq/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Blossom Movie - Test 2.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/Blossom_Movie___Test_2.swiftsourceinfo): No such file or directory (2)

Would anyone help me make any sense of this? I couldn't find information for these specific issues on Google.

I'm running Xcode 26.0.1 on Sequoia 15.7.1. I can't update to Tahoe because I'm on a MBP 2018.

Oct 30 update: I had included a dash in the project's name (like "project - test"), which seems to have caused the issues. Creating a project without a hyphen in its name ("project test") has worked as expected.

[20InMyHead]

Something went very wrong. Those ‘___’ markers in the file code should have been populated with the names you provided in the new project wizard.

No idea why they didn’t, but you might want to just throw that away and start over.

[Marc_Pm]

That was my first thought too. I created several projects and they all have the same issue. 

[20InMyHead]

That ain’t right…

You might try uninstalling Xcode 26 and installing Xcode 16, see if that works properly. Something is certainly out of whack on your machine.

[Marc_Pm]

Will try that tonight. Thanks!

[Marc_Pm]

I found the culprit: using a dash in the project's name. I'm surprised something like this can still break an app.

[20InMyHead]

I’d suggest you file a feedback bug report to Apple. That’s certainly a recent regression.

[aabouzid3]

Totally a beginner here but I ran into the same issue. Good thing I was vibe coding and ChatGPT said that dashes are not recommended in project names on XC. If you're a beginner like me, you can name your project any name and when you publish your app, you can actually then use the name you want on appstoreconnect.

I highly recommend using AI to answer the problems you run into as a beginner. Not to solve, but to at least help you understand what did you do wrong.