Alcatraz the package manager for xCode
As a full-stack developer, I find myself using more and more package managers every year. For example, here's my current set-up:
homebrew
orapt-get
for downloading packages on my local machine.yum
for AWS AMI projects.npm
for NodeJS projects.bower
for web package management.rvm
orrbenv
for [Ruby] projects.gem
for Rails projects.pip
for Python projects.dnvm
for Microsoft .Net projects.CocoaPods
,Carthage
,Swift Package Manager
for iOS / osTV projects.
Wow, that's a lot of package managers.
At this point, I'm proud to announce that I'm also using
alcatraz
to manage my xCode projects.
Why Alcatraz
Alcatraz allows you to install different Plugins, Color Themes, and Templates for xCode. This is very different from CocoaPods, Carthage, and Swift Package Manager which focus on helping app developers discover and install libraries and frameworks created by the community.
Alcatraz is really more intended to help you pimp out your xCode.
My favorite plug-in within Alcatrax is AdjustFontSize. It makes it very easy to increase and decrease font sizes using Control +
or Control -
.
I also prefer viewing code in midnight mode. There are a ton of really nice color themes within the package manager.
The templates section is great for new Swift developers. I specifically use this Singleton template because there are like 2 or 3 ways to accomplish a Singleton in Swift.
How to Install Alcatraz
Similar to homebrew
. All you need to do is paste this line of code into Terminal.
curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/alcatraz/Alcatraz/master/Scripts/install.sh | sh
From there, all you need to do is restart xCode and you'll get this option beneath the Window menu.