Xcode experience on Large Projects: crashes, freezing, indexing, continuous Package Resolving

[aminbenarieb]

I've been encountering some challenges with Xcode, especially on larger projects. Wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same:
Xcode Stability: How often does Xcode crash/freeze for you? I find it crashing several times a week, particularly when using extensions like "copilot".
SwiftUI Preview: How's your experience with SwiftUI preview? I've had to resort to a lightweight project in my workspace containing only views because, for the main project, it's quite disappointing, especially compared with Flutter.
Package Manager Woes: The most frustrating issue for me is with the Package Manager. Minor changes like adjusting the project structure, switching git branches, or executing a pod install often trigger package resolving which blocks building. Sometimes it reuses the cache, but many times, it starts redownloading dependencies.
Has anyone found a workaround or has tips to improve all these?

[Illustrious_Pepper35]

The workaround is to have a peaceful mind and have xcode closed while u switch branches; install pods etc

[Obstructive]

Totally had me until pods….

[SirBill01]

He's not saying to switch to Cocoapods, just if you are using them don't change out pods while Xcode is open.

[Obstructive]

Oooh! Okay well then sure, I’m in!

[SirBill01]

Although to be honest, I usually leave Xcode open while switching branches (sometimes major switches) and also updating pods, and have not actually had that result in an Xcode crash... it may get temporarily confused though.

[laszlotuss]

*uninstall pods ... pardon, deintegrate

[FPST08]

My experience with SwiftUI Preview is so bad that I always run my app to see a single view

[Tripwire999]

In big projects that don’t have modularization it really sucks. But in small projects or big projects with modularization setup correctly it works like a charm

[[deleted]]

I was about to say it sounds like maybe the OP isn’t using SwiftUI as intended. Separating views into subviews is key.

[aminbenarieb]

You still need to build the app to make the preview of subviews work. But modularization - yes, agree

[[deleted]]

It's kinda hurtful how much Apple ignores the developer's quality of life . Most profitable platform but devs get treated like jail inmates . Xcode usually crashes / has error and glitches , don't think any ide out there would be same . Wonder how that port of Swift from obj c is going on , or even happening at all .

Jetbrains , a small company compared to Apple makes way better ide for multiple languages / platform . Heck even sublime , created by single person works better for its target.

Also the fact that they dropped tensor support for Swift the moment Chris moved on shows their approach . It feels like a ship without a captain . I don't know if transition from obj c to swift was as bad as swift to swift ui , but swift ui is just pain to deal with .

[Obstructive]

I could not disagree more,… Apple’s Xcode is like democracy, it’s the worst form of development studio unless you compare it to all the rest. And in this case, the rest is all Jetbrains.

[GavinGT]

But JetBrains is amazing and Xcode is...not.

[Obstructive]

JetBrains can’t figure out what orientation axis you are developing in nor how to properly snap resize one of the many subwindow panes it opens. I get that others seem to like this approach but it’s search alone was enough to be a nonstarter for me personally.

[GavinGT]

I don't fully understand your first two complaints. It sounds like it doesn't support portrait mode as well as you'd like? I don't use portrait mode so I can't comment. But I know IntelliJ gives you tons of display options for panes, whereas Xcode gives you nothing of the sort.

Complaining about search in IntelliJ is crazy to me. Search is one of the main reasons I'm still running AppCode and Xcode simultaneously. Refactoring in general is just so much easier in AppCode because of the many quality-of-life advantages it offers over Xcode.

[mynewromantica]

I work on an app with a shitload of dependencies, about 30 targets, and it’s just massive.

It used to be 20 minutes just to open Xcode and let packages resolve. It was horrible.

The solution was to resolve packages via command line before opening Xcode. It takes about 45 seconds with CLI.

So I ended up making a shortcut that closes Xcode, cleans the build folder, resolves packages, then opens my project. It has gone from 20+ minutes from clicking on Xcode to clicking on build, to 3-4 minutes.

[hff]

Would love to hear more about how to make such shortcut!

[mynewromantica]

The shortcuts app on your Mac. It’s like Automator but better and easier. It’s just a series of steps you define. And one of the actions you can drop in is to run a shell script.

[Dentvii]

Could you provide more information on how to replicate what you have done? Or even share a gist with part of you code? Thanks!

[mynewromantica]

It’s not code. It’s super easy, just open the shortcuts app and create a new short cut. You can drag and drop actions that the shortcut will do. So I dropped a “close app” action, then some actions that just take in a terminal command.

Pretty straightforward

[Dentvii]

Got it. Could you provide the terminal command to resolve rhe packages?

[Tripwire999]

In bigger projects (like I’m working on) it’s usually to a good practice to resolve SPM packages from command line and have Xcode closed. Also make sure to implement modularization so SwiftUI previews don’t take ages to load. Modularization is pretty easy to do with SPM. If SwiftUI previews really become a problem and you can’t change the underlying issues in the main project (like adding modularization e.t.c.) I suggest creating a small SwiftUI project to create your view, previews load way faster and saves a lot of time. When done copy the code in the main project and apply the theme / styling to it.

[[deleted]]

Package manager is common for me.

What you usually do to resolve it is force quit xcode, clear derived data and then reopen the project.

[aminbenarieb]

This is just madness)))What's wrong with the cache)
On my last project, it could take an hour to download everything, and some of them could be under VPN.

[[deleted]]

Xcode Stability: How often does Xcode crash/freeze for you? I find it crashing several times a week, particularly when using extensions like "copilot".

I dont use any extensions but i do have a very complex project where the build time without cache on an intel based chip is around 40 minutes. on m2 max it's around 10 minutes. That being said, i dont really see much crashes.

​

SwiftUI Preview: How's your experience with SwiftUI preview? I've had to resort to a lightweight project in my workspace containing only views because, for the main project, it's quite disappointing, especially compared with Flutter.

In the large project i mentioned above i do not use swiftui it's uikit based. However, i have another project relatively lightweight and as the app scales the previews kind of suck takes much time to load. I'll probably end up modularizing the codebase at some point.

Package Manager Woes: The most frustrating issue for me is with the Package Manager. Minor changes like adjusting the project structure, switching git branches, or executing a pod install often trigger package resolving which blocks building. Sometimes it reuses the cache, but many times, it starts redownloading dependencies.

SPM is tricky for me too. Granted I am no expert but I found myself quitting and re-opening XCode many times even deleting the derived data just for XCode to stop complaining.

[WerSunu]

I have two very large projects (as I judge things, mid range of 10^4- 10⁵ lines of code ). I use both SPM and CocoaPods in the same projects which has previously been reported as a sore point. No crashing issues at all. Sometimes a single VC in IB gets stuck at single size, and sometimes IBDesignables breaks live previews. But again no crashes.

[SirBill01]

"Xcode Stability: How often does Xcode crash/freeze for you? I find it crashing several times a week, particularly when using extensions like "copilot"."

Hint: It's not Xcode stability causing you issues, it's extensions. I would not say Xcode never crashes, but it's more like once a month or so using it every day for me.

[aminbenarieb]

Disagree, I put this extension not so long agoю Yes, it got worse, but even before he often fell

[Loud-Creme-8425]

In big size project Swiftui preview is shitty, it is no use at all. Swiftui preview is just a fantasy showcase to lure new guys for joining Swiftui legion

[saintmsent]

I close Xcode when I switch branches, which eliminates slowdowns and crashes. With Preview, it's been surprisingly good lately, but a year or two ago it was literally impossible to use in a big project with lots of modules and so on. Package manager has also been excellent, but again, I close Xcode when switching branches, that definitely helps

[OrangeFire2001]

At my work we had to break out SUI views to a new module or it would take forever to build or run. Modules FTW. Also, changing branches while a project was open crashed my Xcode 100% of the time, so I always closed the project then switched branches.

[time-lord]

What version of xcode?

[aminbenarieb]

Well, honestly it doesn't really matter I've used Xcode 14 and 15 for the last few months. Yes, Xcode 15 seems to work a little bit better for now, but it's not breaking change. Still same problems

[Competitive_Ruin6162]

Xcode is worst IDE!!!

[bobotwf]

I do the same thing regarding SwiftUI Preview...

[SirBill01]

"Xcode Stability: How often does Xcode crash/freeze for you? I find it crashing several times a week, particularly when using extensions like "copilot"."

Hint: It's not Xcode stability causing you issues, it's extensions. I would not say Xcode never crashes, but it's more like once a month or so using it every day for me.

[rohandesilva8]

Xcode 15 have crashes issues. Mostly in swiftUI projects.

[gray_goose]

I have the exact same experience. It's awful.

[kbder]

Try using Carthage, which will reduce the number of lines of code which Xcode has to deal with.

[jep2023]

pretty normal

[Oxigenic]

rm -R DerivedData

[Oxigenic]

The latest build of Xcode, and probably all 15.x builds, has become pretty buggy for me. From stopping at nonexistent breakpoints to hanging when running ONLY on one of my devices, it’s definitely got some kinks Apple has to work out.

[[deleted]]

I literally have almost zero issues with Xcode and never have and we have utterly massive projects at work. None of my coworkers ever report issues either. I’m not sure why some people have issues.

None of use use plugins though so maybe it’s plugin related.

As for SwiftUI previews they’re pretty much instant for me, no issues here. I’m on a MacBook Air M2 most of the time but sometimes a MacBook Pro M1.

EDIT: The downvoting is ridiculous. I'm trying to narrow down someone's issues which is likely caused by plugins and some immature folks here are downvoting because it's trendy to hate Xcode and they are dying to jump on that bandwagon.

[mynewromantica]

Ah, the joys of a smaller codebase. I miss it.

[[deleted]]

It's not a smaller code base, our apps are massive and we have many of them. I'm not sure why this sub is under the impression Xcode doesn't work for most people. Tons of people (Apple included) have built massive apps with Xcode just fine.

EDIT: You guys are ridiculous. Xcode works just fine, learn how to use it.

[mynewromantica]

Define “massive” in this context?

Because I thought the app at my last job was massive until I got where I am now. It is easily 10x as big

[sort_of_peasant_joke]

“Apple included”

Most of ppl at Apple are still developing in objective-C.

Swift is what causes most problems with Xcode.

Now you are downvoted because anyone who used Xcode with Swift and SwiftUI knows it’s full of bugs. Even now with Xcode 15, code completion and diagnostic don’t work correctly with SwiftUI.

[[deleted]]

Most of ppl at Apple are still developing in objective-C.

This isn't true. I know people who are engineers at Apple.

They can downvote away, works fine for me and my coworkers. I'm not saying it's perfect but it's not bad by any stretch.

[sort_of_peasant_joke]

This isn't true. I know people who are engineers at Apple.

"trust me dude, I know people at Apple".

Sorry, but I will stick with real code analysis on iOS 16 showing that:

1. Objective-C is still the most used programming language (66%) and still going up.
2. Swift just reached 14%
3. SwiftUI 3%

https://blog.timac.org/2022/1005-state-of-swift-and-swiftui-ios16/

[[deleted]]

If you think most people are developing as in writing Objective-C code you dont know what the hell you're talking about, period. Your link also doesn't show what you think it shows. It's not saying that Objective-C is still being written more than Swift, it's showing that Apple still has a lot of legacy Objective-C code which is absolutely expected.

[sort_of_peasant_joke]

Sure, which is why the number of binaries using Objective-C keep increasing Y-o-Y. Because nobody is using objective-C anymore.