Chapter 14

Introducing the Xcode Debugger

Xcode is fantastic! Not only is this tool provided free of charge on Apple's developer site, but it is actually really, really good! Aside from being able to create the next great Mac OS X, iPhone, or iPad app, Xcode has a fantastic debugger built right into the tool.

So, what exactly is a debugger? First of all, let's get something straight—programs do exactly what they are written to do. Sometimes, what is written isn't exactly what the program is really meant to do. Sometimes, this means the program crashes or just doesn't do something that is expected. Whatever the case, when a program doesn't work as planned, the program is said to have bugs. The process of going through the code and fixing these problems is called debugging.