Xcode C++ and Objective-C refactoring

c++ objective-c xcode cocos2d-iphone box2d
Terko picture Terko · Apr 5, 2013 · Viewed 10.3k times · Source

Is there a way to refactor mixed C++/Objective-C code in Xcode ?? I am writing a game using Cocos2D and Box2D, and the Box2D is written on C++, so every class I write should have .mm extension and therefore when I try to e.g. rename the variable, I got a message like "Xcode can only refactor C and Objective-C code".

Thanks in advance!

Answer

Sulthan picture Sulthan · Apr 5, 2013

Xcode is VERY limited with refactoring, even with plain Obj-C. It's basically renaming and it can't even rename in comments. If it says it can't do something, then it probably can't.

The only way to rename is using find & replace. Note that Xcode can handle regular expressions so it is often good enough.

Of course, the problem is that find & replace doesn't know the programming language and sometimes can add some extra replace or forget to replace something, therefore be extra careful. Clean build is neccessary after every refactoring to check everything got renamed correctly.

You can also use command line tools (e.g. sed) to achieve the same.

Related questions

What is Objective C++?

What is Objective C++ and can I use this language in Xcode?

Read More
Use of external C++ headers in Objective-C

In my iOS project I need to use an external library written in C++. The C++ header files are all in one directory. I've added these C++ headers to my Xcode project, and also specified a header search path (in …

Read More
Compiling external C++ library for use with iOS project

I'm completely new to using C++ libraries, so appreciate this might be a bit specific for my case (let me know and I can provide more details). I have an external C++ library that I'm trying to use with an …

Read More