Product Overview: AppCode by JetBrains
AppCode, developed by JetBrains, is a comprehensive Integrated Development Environment (IDE) specifically designed for iOS, macOS, and other Apple platform development. Although it has been announced that AppCode will be discontinued, here is an overview of its capabilities and features that made it a valuable tool for developers.
Key Features and Functionality
Multi-Language Support
AppCode provides robust support for a wide range of programming languages, including Objective-C, Swift, C, and C (including modern C standards, libc , and Boost). It also supports web technologies such as JavaScript, XML, HTML, CSS, and Markdown, ensuring that developers can work seamlessly across different aspects of their projects.
Intelligent Code Assistance
AppCode is renowned for its intelligent code completion, which includes both basic and smart completion. The smart completion analyzes the context to offer more accurate suggestions, helping developers write code more efficiently and avoid errors. Additionally, it features code generation for common constructs like loops, conditions, enumerations, and method implementations, streamlining the development process.
Code Analysis and Debugging
The IDE includes advanced static analysis that highlights errors and warnings in real-time, providing quick-fix suggestions as you type. It also offers powerful debugging capabilities with an integrated debugger UI using LLDB as the backend, allowing developers to evaluate expressions and view values directly in the editor.
Testing Frameworks
AppCode supports several testing frameworks, including XCTest, Quick, Kiwi, Catch, Boost.Test, and Google Test. It includes a built-in test runner and a powerful UI for investigating test results, making it easier to write and manage tests.
Version Control and Integration
The IDE offers a unified interface for popular version control systems like Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and Perforce. It also integrates with third-party tools such as CocoaPods and Reveal, enhancing the development workflow. Additionally, AppCode synchronizes changes with Xcode, allowing developers to work in both environments simultaneously.
Database Management
AppCode includes first-class SQL and database management functionality from JetBrains’ DataGrip, enabling developers to explore, read, modify data, and execute queries directly within the IDE.
Customization and Plugins
Developers can customize the IDE with predefined user interface themes, keymaps (including Xcode, Emacs, Visual Studio, and more), and plugins. The IntelliJ Platform underlying AppCode allows for the installation of over 50 plugins, enhancing editor capabilities, integrating additional tools, and supporting other languages via plugins.
Productivity Tools
AppCode features various tools to boost productivity, such as live templates for inserting complex code chunks, navigation to any class, function, or symbol, and a local history to save changes if a project is not under version control. It also supports shell scripts and YAML files out of the box.
In summary, AppCode by JetBrains was a powerful IDE designed to streamline the development process for Apple platform developers by offering intelligent code assistance, comprehensive language support, advanced debugging and testing tools, and seamless integration with various development tools and frameworks. Despite its upcoming discontinuation, it has been a valuable resource for many developers in the Apple ecosystem.