Using Xcode’s Built In Documentation
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Lately I’ve been linking to Apple’s developer documentation quite a bit when explaining the code here on Colour Me Cocoa. By now you should have realized that there is a world of information out there, all you have to do is search.
What you might not have realized though, is that the same world of information is also right in front of you. There’s no need for an internet connection when you have Xcode, all of the documentation can be found right at your fingertips!
In Xcode under the Help menu there is a link to Documentation that brings up the developer documentation.
Awesome! Everything you can find on the ADC you can find right here on your computer.
That’s all well and good, but the fun doesn’t stop there. Open up some code you’ve been working on. Find a method (like functions but objective-oriented) you don’t understand and highlight it. Control Click the highlighted text to bring up the contextual menu and take a look towards the bottom of the list.
I spy with my little eye:
Find Selected Text In Documentation
and
Find Selected Text In API Reference
Go ahead and see what happens when you click them. *Boom* your local documentation window pops up again, this time with a search already performed for you. In the case of the API Reference you’ll most likely receive a description of how the method is used as your first search result.
The beauty of all of this is that Xcode doesn’t just search your local documentation. It also searched the ADC. Sometimes there are new articles that haven’t yet become a part of the downloadable documentation. This is indicated in the Location column.
I’ll continue to link to the online versions as I have no idea where you’re reading this. But if you are reading a local copy of the RSS feed on the train with no internet connection now you know where to go in order to find that missing link.