![XCode Tips
blog post | XCode Tips
Some configuration options some people don’t know about.
_
While I do enjoy using XCode, some of the default settings are a bit too resource intensive for my liking. Luckily the way the preferences work allow us to tweak some values to speed up the IDE and make builds use a lot less RAM and CPU. The most well known ones
Most XCode users will have googled this by now and found the following commands in the Terminal.app will change the most important performance settings there are for XCode - but remember to write down the defaults before you go changing them ( defaults read com.apple.dt.XCode [setting name] )defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEBuildOperationMaxNumberOfConcurrentCompileTasks 4
defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEIndexDisable 1 DON’T just blindly execute these in Terminal.app and wonder 2 days later what happened to Intellisense. Take note what each option does - and read up the consequences of every configuration change you do make ( or at least make sure you log which ones you did make so you can roll them back if need be ).
So - the first one is self explanatory, it controls how many instances of ccplus1 will be executed when building files. Turning the number down means a lot less resources used up, and a lot less CPU usage from builds. It might sound counter intuitive to use LESS power - but with close to no RAM your PC will be practically asleep for what sometimes feel like an eternity. Including simple tasks like FORCE QUIT will seem to be incredibly unresponsive.
Weirdly enough , when I turned my build count down ( I use Indexing still ) my build times decreased drastically - I was able to use Build as an actual ‘Is this syntax correct’ option without my entire IDE and Mac becoming unresponsive. A definite improvement.
You might want to take note of the defaults for this concurrent flag - as the number you use should be relative to the number of cores your CPU has, so a more beefy Mac can use more without it disrupting other use. Other Interesting settings
Save all xcode preferences to a file to explore:defaults read com.apple.dt.XCode > xcodeprefs.json
Show all devices and their information you have plugged in before
defaults read com.apple.dt.XCode DVTSavediPhoneDevices
Building :
IDEActivityLogShowsAllBuildSteps = 0
IDEActivityLogShowsAnalyzerResults = 0
IDEActivityLogShowsErrors = 1
IDEActivityLogShowsWarnings = 0
IDEBuildingContinueBuildingAfterErrors = 0 Debugging
IDEHexEditorByteGrouping = 32 
Enjoy](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1pkjo5eep1r0849po1_500.png)
 , GGJ plans are well under way.
If you want to attend : There is still space.
Make sure you do the following :
1) Register on http://www.globalgamejam.org
2) Email Cell Number and Name to igdajhb@gmail.com
3) Look at this interesting picture below
4) [Visit the Johannesburg site page](http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2012/johannesburg) and Join the group
5) Come and make an awesome game in 48 hours.
That is all.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly96iibdQg1r0849po1_500.jpg)
Note: I am going to say a lot of things that may sound unlikely, implausible, or even outright silly. I encourage you, in reading this, to keep an open mind and identify the roots of my speculation as real and truly destructive. Though it is likely things will not play out as my post below…
Hobo theme Mike Ballan Mod by me
