In my free time, I work on the Clang open source project, mostly on the static analyzer. This is the backend behind Xcode’s wonderful “Analyze” tool, which catches path-sensitive problems like memory leaks and then shows you the path where the leak happens.

Using custom builds of the analyzer in Xcode has always been fairly easy with the set-xcode-analyzer tool, distributed with packaged builds of the checker or hidden in the tools/scan-build directory in the Clang source repository. But what if you want to use a custom build as your compiler?…say, to play with Automatic Reference Counting (which …

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When writing GenericToolbar 1.0 there were plenty of times I wanted to print something to the run log using NSLog, or even just observe the error messages IB prints. So I’d go call up the old Console utility and watch as my autorefreshing webmail window prints line after line, while IB is completely silent and error-less. Or did I just miss it with all the Safari AJAX calls?

It wasn’t too bad, but it’s not a very pleasant way to debug a plugin. And as for true debugging and breakpoints, forget it.

By the time I was starting work…

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