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Apr 5

Written by: Renegade
Monday, April 05, 2010 10:50 AM

Well, I found it, the "Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers" video:

https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/adc.apple.com.3391479180.03391479186.3416008888?i=1223167627

Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers is buried deep in the iTunes App Store where you'll never be able to locate it otherwise. After all, Google doesn't index there...

(If it's not in Google, it basically doesn't exist.)

I don't know why Apple doesn't have a friendlier entry-point for developers coming from other platforms. The vast majority of developers that look at developing on the Mac hate it, with many of them avoiding Mac tools as much as possible, and others just outright leaving, and never developing anything for the Mac. Man! I wonder what the Apple evangelists do?!

I searched for exactly that video before, and it didn't turn up in Google. It shouldn't be that hard to make things easier for people, and making things available for search engines just seems like THE most basic thing. Sigh...

Anyways, I hope that helps some Visual Studio people out there avoid a bit of pain. Eclipse people too~! :)

Now, for the video itself...

Review of "Xcode for Visual Studio and Ecplise Developers" Video

They missed the point. Entirely. Not even close. The video is basically, "this is Xcode and how wonderful it is." There are some very nice things in the, to be certain, but it wasn't the information that I was looking for. I needed something that explained Xcode FOR VISUAL STUDIO AND ECLIPSE DEVELOPERS. The video just tries to explain Xcode, which is marginally useful given the title.

Now, I'd still say watch the video, but don't expect too much. You'll be further ahead watching it than not, and the sooner you watch it, the less pain you'll have. Although it seems like the video is like giving an aspirin to someone about to have all their limbs amputated with a hammer.

The video, while mentioning Visual Studio and Eclipse, doesn't give enough comparisons to really be useful. Comparisons are made where things are similar, but those are pretty useless and not very informative. If the only thing that changes is the terminology, then there's nothing difficult. e.g. Instead of a "solution", you have a "project" in Xcode. Similarities have a very, very shallow learning curve. It's the tough things that matter.

The tough things are those where the way you do things in the different IDEs are not similar. This is where the video really falls short. There are simply not enough solid comparisons to help Visual Studio or Eclipse developers get up to speed in Xcode for those differences.

I would have liked to have seen a walk-through for typical things that you'd do in Visual Studio explained as they would relate to Visual Studio.

Basically, the point that they missed is that if developers are coming to Xcode from Visual Studio, and if they need a video with a title like, "Xcode for Visual Studio Developers", then more than likely they already understand Visual Studio terminology and methodology, but just don't get Xcode. You can't speak "Xcode" to somebody that doesn't understand "Xcode". You need to translate "Xcode-speak" into "Visual Studio-speak" for people to understand you.

The video actually does a very good job of introducing Xcode. But that's not what I was expecting given the title.

Verdict: Watch the video, but don't get your expectations too high.

Cheers,

Ryan

P.S. I now have Firefox, so I can blog from my Mac now. :) (Still some differences that are proving to be painful, but slowly getting used to them.)

Copyright ©2010 Ryan Smyth

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4 comments so far...

Re: Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers

Hi Ryan!

Do you know if I need a paid membership in order to see the video? I'm trying to open it using the link you posted, but iTunes says my user doesn't have access to that video.

By Rodrigo Sieiro on   Tuesday, May 04, 2010 1:55 AM

Re: Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers

Hello Rodrigo,

I think you can just sign up for free with an Apple ID and get access to it. Check here: http://www.apple.com/search/?q=developer&sec=global -- That should be the starting point. Sign up for the free Apple ID and then you should be able to view it when logged in.

Cheers,

Ryan

By Renegade on   Tuesday, May 04, 2010 1:57 AM

Re: Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers

Well, I guess I need a Mac Developer paid account.

I have a free account (I'm registered as an Apple Developer) but when I try to load the video, it says I can't. I noticed that video is under the "Foundation Videos" category, and according to this page (https://developer.apple.com/videos/access/) I need a paid membership to watch Foundation Videos.

Well, no video for me. hehe

Thanks anyway!

By Rodrigo Sieiro on   Wednesday, May 05, 2010 12:49 AM

Re: Xcode for Visual Studio and Eclipse Developers

Sorry about that. Apple really kind of sucks for developers. Other platform companies are much kinder. Samsung makes lots of materials open for free when you sign up. If you're planning on developing for a mobile platform, check out bada. Not everything is 100% open yet, but it will be soon.

I really didn't think that they'd make you pay to view basic information that enables you to develop for their platform. Sigh...

By Renegade on   Wednesday, May 05, 2010 12:53 AM

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