Development tools and editors for OS X

By Orinks, 23 March, 2015

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi everyone,
I have tried two development editors on the Mac so far, and am not impressed. TextRangler and Sublime Text all prove inaccessible. I am particularly disappointed with Sublime Text because I am going through Learn Python the Hard Way and Sublime Text has a Python console built in, that you could probably bring up and close with a single keystroke. It saves me from having to open Terminal every time I want to run a script.
With Xcode, I'm not sure how to develop a Mac app. When you open Xcode for the first time and start a new project, the only options you are given for gaming are related to iOS. Also, is there an absolute newbie guide to Swift around? I took a look at that book they launched at WWDC, but that book appeared to be focusing on getting the Objective C coders converted to Swift as efficiently as possible. I really like PureBasic, as everything but the editor is accessible, go figure. The documentation is a huge code and function reference and you can just look at stuff and play around with it.
I wish Xcode had that with Swift. In the reviews for Xcode it appears to, but does anyone know where to find it? I only see the Xcode UI help.
Calling all developers and aspiring developers like myself: Which editors and utilities and IDEs prove the most usable with VoiceOver on OS X?
Thanks.

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Comments

By mehgcap on Monday, March 23, 2015 - 15:00

Xcode is very usable, but I'd choose a Cocoa app from the OS X templates, don't start with a game. Besides, all these templates do is provide some boiler plate code you could add in yourself, so nothing says you couldn't make a game later as your project develops (no pun intended). The main problem right now will be hooking up actions to UI controls--you'll need sighted help for that until Apple fixes it.

As to Swift, Google is your best bet. Plenty of sites like Big Nerd Ranch and tons of others have Swift intro blogs and articles. Just search for "getting started with Swift" and you'll have a plethora of options from which to choose. There's also that new Swift course from Stanford being put out on iTunes U that might be of interest.

By Mani on Monday, May 4, 2015 - 21:21

Hello:
Have you looked into Smultron 6 for a text editor for your Python development? The app developer is very helpful and understand our accessibility issues. I have to admit I haven't used it for quite some time.
As for the Swift programming language, have you tried the Apple documentation on the language? It is available for free on iBooks.

I hope this helps.
mani