Xcode Plugin?

[Dov]

I had forgotten until I came across Alcatraz today (http://alcatraz.io/) that Xcode used to support plugins. Is there any chance of BC replacing Xcode's built-in diff tool in the future (via Alcatraz)? There are more examples of existing plugins on NSHipster: http://nshipster.com/xcode-plugins/

My preference for BC's diffing over Xcode's is one of the only reasons I continue to use SCM on the command line instead of through Xcode's Git integration.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the feedback. Alcatraz itself is just a repository, correct? The work that would need to be done is creating a plugin which xcode could use as a diff utility?

Beyond Compare 4 supports the Beyond Compare menu -> Install Command Line Utilities, which installs bcomp to be used by any tool that supports external tool definition. It looks like Xcode does not generally want or allow users to define an external diff tool; if this could be done, setup would be much easier.

We don't have an XCode plugin at this time. It is something we could look into after a 4.0 launch. If you have any additional documentation we could review, please post here and I can make note of it.

[Dov]

Yeah, creating a plugin is what I was suggesting. It would be great if that made a future release. Here are a couple of helpful links:

An Xcode template for plugins (which can itself be installed via Alcatraz):
https://github.com/kattrali/Xcode5-Plugin-Template

An NSHipster roundup of other plugins:
http://nshipster.com/xcode-plugins/