Introduction
Having the right set of tools can take your development quality to the next level. This article provides you with my personal current top 10 apps to use for Mac and iOS development in 2014.
#1 - Xamarin Studio
Simply the best cross platform developer tool on the market. Xamarin Studio can be used to create Android, iOS, Mac & Windows apps. (Mac & Windows apps must be created in their respective operating system)
Features
- Share code across platforms
- Compiles C# code into a native application
- Use any Objective-C or Java API from C#
- IDE for Mac
- Visual Studio plugin for Windows
- Pre-built components for faster development
- Excellent product documentation and support
Website - http://www.xamarin.com
#2 - AppCode
AppCode is a must have IDE for any serious developer on the Mac/iOS platform.
Features
- Advanced Coding Assistance
- Code Generation and Refactorings
- Code Quality
- Project and Code Navigation
- i18n Support
- Debugger
- Unit Testing
- iOS Development
- VCS Integration and Local History
- Integrations
- More than Objective-C IDE
- Customization and Extensibility
#3 - Indigo Studio
Prototype out your app ideas. Indigo Studio allows you to interactively prototype your web, desktop, and mobile apps.
Features
- Illustrate with Storyboards
- Sketch and Design Screens
- Design with Clutter-Free UI
- Leverage Built-In UI Elements
- Prototype and Visualize Interactions
- Animate Transitions
- Annotate Prototypes
- Share and Present Prototypes with HTML5 support
- Export Prototype Designs
#4 - Reflector
An excellent tool for mirroring your iOS device screen when you have to demo or present to a group.
Features
- Record. Easily capture the screen of your iOS device and save it as a video file for later review.
- iOS On Your Mac. View your iOS device on your Mac and continue using it while you're mirroring.
- Password Protection. Control access to your Mac by setting a password to prevent unwanted connections.
- Selectable Frames. Change the color of the device frame on your screen to match the actual skin of your device.
Website: https://www.reflectorapp.com
#5 - PaintCode
PaintCode is vector drawing app that easily allows you to create application interface elements that can be plugged right into your code because of the excellent Objective-C or C# that is generated in realtime.
Features
- Vector drawing tools
- Realtime code generation
- Dynamic colors
- Dynamic shapes
- Realtime preview
- Boolean operations
- Smart Guides
- Bezier tool
- Inner and outer shadows
- Multi-step gradients
- Blend modes and clips
- Smart groups
- SVG import
Website - http://www.paintcodeapp.com
#6 - Paw
Paw is a simple and powerful app that allows you to test REST services as well as generate code for the request in several langauges.
Features
- Simple and powerful
- Organize your requests
- Code generation for; cURL, Objective-C (using AFNetworking or NSURLConnection), Python, Ruby, jQuery AJAX and PHP
- Smart completion
- Dynamic values (OAuth, Amazon S3, Cookies and Response)
- URL & body formatting
- Potential error warnings
Website - http://luckymarmot.com/paw
#7 - xScope
A collection of valuable design and development tools all in one package.
Features
- Mirror - Effortlessly see your designs and applications on iOS while you work on them from your Mac.
- Dimensions - Instantly find the dimensions of any on-screen element simply by rolling your mouse cursor over it.
- Rulers - Powerful on-screen rulers for precise pixel measurements that include scaling, rotation, and edge snapping.
- Screens - Inspect your usable screen real estate with dozens of templates for computers, TV's and mobile devices.
- Loupe - Magnify part of your screen, copy colors and simulate how colors appear to users with vision impairments.
- Guides - Display vertical and horizontal guides that float on top of all else on the screen for easy alignment.
- Frames - Create, layout and adjust custom marker boxes that float on top of all other on-screen elements.
- Crosshair - Quickly and easily locate and align any point visible on the screen.
Website: http://xscopeapp.com
#8 - CodeRunner
Edit and run code in any programming language. There's a bunch of preset languages already set up, and it's an easy task to add any other languages you might be using.
Features
- Run code in any language
- Powerful editing
- Customizable templates
- Built-in Console
- Add your own languages
- Interact with your code
Website: http://krillapps.com/coderunner/
#9 - Patterns
A simple yet powerful tool for working with regular expressions. Includes a built in cheat sheet, if you need a little refresher.
Features
- Regular expression syntax coloring makes it easy to see how your pattern is interpreted by the regex engine. No more confusion about what needs to be escaped.
- See matches and replacements in real time while you edit your pattern.
- Copy match and replacement code snippets of your pattern for quick use in a number of different programming languages.
- The built-in regular expression reference sheet helps you find the piece of regex syntax you need.
Website: http://krillapps.com/patterns/
#10 - Clarify
Quickly create tutorials and how-to documents.
Features
- Capture images.
- Each capture becomes a step in your document.
- Add annotations and text to images.
- Add text.
- Share your document via Dropbox or Clarify-it.com.
- Share as a PDF.
- Copy RTF to email or word processing documents.
- Many ways to export images.
Website: http://www.clarify-it.com
Honorable Mention - Sip
Sip deserves an honorable mention and shouldn't be excluded from any developer's collection of tools, this app allows you to select a color format from 35 different ones and then encode any color on your screen.
Features
- Copy colors to 1 of 35 color formats
- Multi-touch gestures
- Photoshop extension
- Illustrator extension
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Share color by email
Website - http://theolabrothers.com/sip/
