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Ask HN: Those building Swift apps without touching Xcode, what is your workflow?

18 points by p5v 5mo ago

It's one thing having to download this monstrosity, and a whole other, having to use it daily to write code.

taraharris 5mo ago
[dead]
brudgers 5mo ago
https://www.swift.org/documentation/articles/zero-to-swift-emacs.html https://www.swift.org/documentation/articles/zero-to-swift-e... You could probably use Emacs for Swift...just like for about every other language. Whether you still must download a monstrosity is left as an exercise for the reader.
- whynotmaybe 5mo ago
  I'm using flutter and had to download xcode to build the app so I guess it's a necessary step.
  - skyberrys 5mo ago
    I'm using flutter too, I've found a website called codemagic, so I can make builds for iOS. My laptop is windows. The bulk of development is building for Android.
indemnity 5mo ago
I use Xcode, but just to run the app with Command-R so I can see log messages or stack traces if I need to drop it into the agent for analysis. Everything else is done by Claude Code / Codex. I even read the source using Zed not Xcode :)
sandruso 5mo ago
I had xcede[0] setup that worked well. [0] https://codeberg.org/luxmentis/xcede https://codeberg.org/luxmentis/xcede
mimiclone 5mo ago
It's nearly impossible to get away from Xcode entirely. You will always need the simulator and probably some entitlement / asset tools. What you can do is write the bulk of your app as an SPM package using your editor of choice, and then include that as a local or GitHub repo dependency in your Xcode shell app (which has no code, just assets, preview assets and plist files)
Kyosuke1008 5mo ago
[flagged]
21-DOT-DEV 5mo ago
[dead]
late_night_fix 5mo ago
I feel like most Xcode free-swift setups still secretly depends on xcodebuild for anything real.
trymamboapp 5mo ago
tauri 2 + rust + webview give you a native feeling if you don't need any Apple frameworks
- hackermanai 5mo ago
  > .. webview .. That would make it an web app tho. Not sure if that's what OP wants when making Swift apps.
IVski 5mo ago
[dead]

18 points by p5v 5mo ago

It's one thing having to download this monstrosity, and a whole other, having to use it daily to write code.

taraharris 5mo ago

[dead]

brudgers 5mo ago

https://www.swift.org/documentation/articles/zero-to-swift-emacs.html https://www.swift.org/documentation/articles/zero-to-swift-e... You could probably use Emacs for Swift...just like for about every other language. Whether you still must download a monstrosity is left as an exercise for the reader.

whynotmaybe 5mo ago
I'm using flutter and had to download xcode to build the app so I guess it's a necessary step.
- skyberrys 5mo ago
  I'm using flutter too, I've found a website called codemagic, so I can make builds for iOS. My laptop is windows. The bulk of development is building for Android.

indemnity 5mo ago

I use Xcode, but just to run the app with Command-R so I can see log messages or stack traces if I need to drop it into the agent for analysis. Everything else is done by Claude Code / Codex. I even read the source using Zed not Xcode :)

sandruso 5mo ago

I had xcede[0] setup that worked well. [0] https://codeberg.org/luxmentis/xcede https://codeberg.org/luxmentis/xcede

mimiclone 5mo ago

It's nearly impossible to get away from Xcode entirely. You will always need the simulator and probably some entitlement / asset tools. What you can do is write the bulk of your app as an SPM package using your editor of choice, and then include that as a local or GitHub repo dependency in your Xcode shell app (which has no code, just assets, preview assets and plist files)

Kyosuke1008 5mo ago

[flagged]

21-DOT-DEV 5mo ago

[dead]

late_night_fix 5mo ago

I feel like most Xcode free-swift setups still secretly depends on xcodebuild for anything real.

trymamboapp 5mo ago

tauri 2 + rust + webview give you a native feeling if you don't need any Apple frameworks

hackermanai 5mo ago
> .. webview .. That would make it an web app tho. Not sure if that's what OP wants when making Swift apps.

IVski 5mo ago

[dead]