Comment by dfabulich

Comment by dfabulich 8 hours ago

9 replies

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If you're not developing an iOS/macOS app, you can skip Xcode completely and just use the `swift` CLI, which is perfectly cromulent. (It works great on Linux and Windows.)

alwillis 6 hours ago

There'a great indie app called Notepad.exe [1] for developing iOS and macOS apps using macOS. You can also write and test Swift apps for Linux easily [2]. It also supports Python and JavaScript.

If you hate Xcode, this is definitely worth a look.

[1]: https://notepadexe.com

[2]: https://notepadexe.com/news/#notepad-14-linux-support

Reply View 4 replies
  • afavour 5 hours ago

    So wait this thing is real? Calling it notepad.exe gave me the impression that it's just an elaborate joke about how you can code any program in Notepad...

    Reply View 2 replies
    • andai 5 hours ago

      It might have a joke name but it costs $80!

      Reply View 1 reply
  • tempodox an hour ago

    It claims “native performance”, which makes me suspect it’s another Electron bloat.

    Reply View 0 replies
behnamoh 7 hours ago

Even if you're developing for macOS you can skip xcode. I've had a great time developing a menubar app for macOS and not once did I need to open xcode.

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  • alex-russo 7 hours ago

    curious what you used - I've been looking into making a menubar app and really hate xcode

    Reply View 1 reply
    • hombre_fatal 5 hours ago

      claude -p "Make a menubar app with AppKit (Cocoa) that does X"

      Reply View 0 replies
mort96 6 hours ago

I would avoid it for Linux and Windows. Even if they are "technically supported", Apple's focus is clearly macOS and iOS. Being a second- (or even third-) class citizen often introduces lots of issues in practice ("oh, nobody teenaged that functionality on Windows"...)

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