Xcode Is the Worst Piece of Professional Software I Have Ever Used

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment

  • Many agree Xcode is unusually frustrating for “professional” software, especially for Swift/SwiftUI.
  • A minority think it’s “not that bad,” especially compared to other rough ecosystems (Android, old Eclipse) or when used with C/C++/Objective‑C.

Common pain points

  • Unreliable behavior: random build problems, vague or missing compiler errors, “Eclipse‑style” ritual of cleaning caches/restarts.
  • Device issues: frequent loss of connection to iOS and Apple Watch devices, wasting huge time when testing on hardware.
  • Performance: slow builds, laggy autocomplete, heavy resource usage; base‑spec Macs struggle.
  • Swift/SwiftUI: compiler and type system produce cryptic or misleading diagnostics; Xcode lags the language’s evolution; some crashes from tiny syntax mistakes.
  • UX: confusing, unlabeled navigation, weird menu structure, flaky buttons, dread around every Xcode update.

Apple’s developer posture & lock‑in

  • Strong sense Apple is indifferent or hostile to developers: poor docs, slow bug fixes, opaque App Store processes.
  • Xcode is seen as a gatekeeping moat: mandatory for App Store distribution, no real alternative IDE, Mac hardware requirement, difficult CI/CD.
  • Some describe Apple culture as viewing Store access and Xcode as a “privilege,” reducing incentives to improve tools.

Comparisons to other ecosystems

  • Visual Studio/.NET and VS Code are praised as models of good tooling and open development.
  • Android Studio/Gradle/NDK are widely called bloated and painful; others argue Android Studio is strong but hardware‑hungry.
  • Several note even worse professional tools (FPGA suites like Vivado, legacy enterprise software, Lotus Notes).

Workarounds and alternatives

  • Some abandon native iOS development for Flutter or web/PWA stacks to escape Xcode and App Store churn.
  • Past alternatives like AppCode were liked for editing but undermined by needing Xcode for builds, lagging Swift support, and missing UI editors.

Disagreements and nuance

  • A few blame user inexperience and Swift itself rather than Xcode alone, urging better debugging habits.
  • Others counter that when the toolchain barely compiles, “use a debugger” isn’t realistic.