Deciphering Xcode's Index

Unfortunately, the real question is why it’s so hard to accomplish any work in this IDE.

I used to like making small, quick changes in Xcode. Despite Xcode’s many quirks, prior to Xcode 8.x it was at least possible to be productive when using Xcode to edit text. Not anymore — now, if you don’t have an external editor then you will have a serious problem. Xcode lags in ways that I cannot seem to fix no matter how many settings I turn off. Something has started dragging the cursor in Xcode 8.x so much that it lags painfully far behind my typing, even for really small files. It......feels......like......this...... when......trying......to......change......just...... a......few......letters...... even......on......one......line. And I really wish that was an exaggeration. Worse, this even happens when you delete a character so you have to lag your way back to fix mistakes that you made.

I knew from the moment Interface Builder was “integrated” that Xcode would slowly grow into an unusable monolith, and I think it’s there. I simply cannot imagine a good justification for stuffing that much into one tool. It is possible and preferable to have a series of separate tools that still support some form of cross-communication.