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 or apt-get for downloading packages on my local machine.
  • yum for AWS AMI projects.
  • npm for NodeJS projects.
  • bower for web package management.
  • rvm or rbenv 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 -.

alcatraz-plugins

I also prefer viewing code in midnight mode. There are a ton of really nice color themes within the package manager.

alcatraz-color-themes

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.

alcatraz-templates

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.

Where to find Alcatraz within xCode