macOS Xcode running slowly

[thizisweird]

So I'm not sure this is in the correct area, but here it goes!

I decided I'd try to run Xcode on my parent's cMP which has the 2.26ghz cpus, and only 16gb of memory. I figured this would be plenty of power to run Xcode, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm wrong about that (although, considering some people use the macbook air to program...).

For example, I was following a tutorial that creates a media player and when I drag a button onto the screen it froze up for about a minute. I forced quit the app, and tried again: same result. Am I really that impatient, and this computer is operating at normal speed? Because that happens instantly on the video I'm watching.

I'm completely new to programming, and stuff like this always shoves me away from actually learning, so I'd like to speed things up if at all possible. All that was running in the background was Safari and Chrome, and when I checked the activity monitor Xcode didn't need the extra 7GB of memory it has....

I'm also used to diagnosing a Windows box, so the troubleshooting is still a bit lost on me lol.

 

[lloyddean]

Missing a few useful pieces of information -

Version of System Software
Version of Xcode
Amount of RAM (I see you've got 16 GB)
Size of, and Free space on, Boot device

 

[thizisweird]

My mistake for the missing bits.

High Sierra 10.13.6
Latest version of Xcode (downloaded and installed the day previous to the original post)
16GB of memory utilizing all slots
189GB free space on the 250GB boot drive

Let me know if there's anything more needed

 

[lloyddean]

That all seems good as I don't see a similar problem on my late 2015 27-inch iMac with 8 GB 3.3 GHz Intel Core i5 and a 2 TB Fusion Drive running Mojave 10.1 on Xcode 10.1

I'm aware of some friends claiming Chrome slows their development machines when running. I myself don't use it so can't properly say either way.

Perhaps try without Chrome running see if the problems persists.

Anyone else?

 

[thizisweird]

I just tried starting a new project without Chrome running, and I had the same experience.

Here's the basic rundown: I started a project, clicked on the storyboard, and was greeted with about a 1 minute wait time. I attempted to change the displayed device from the iPhone 8 to the 8 Plus, and was greeted with another 1 minute wait. In previous attempts to use Xcode, just about anything I would do resulted in a 1 minute wait/freeze up of Xcode. Searching for a button to drag onto the storyboard? That's fine... but dragging it onto the storyboard greets me with a wait/freezing of Xcode. It doesn't even have to be the storyboard either. I had one or two clicks on something in the left pane on day one that caused this problem as well. I don't remember what I clicked on, but all the same in the end.

This is really stumping me. Luckily I don't do this for a living lol, but it does make learning a bore :/

 

[lloyddean]

What happens if you quit, reopen and run the simulator?
Does it still take the minute to run?

Each project will cache the simulator used to cut down on startup times. Meaning the first time the simulator is run on the project WILL have such a delay but subsequent runs should be faster. But this does not explain the problem you're having with Interface builder.

Also when the project is first run the symbols and such are indexed and cached for quick access at the time of first build, creating a small delay as well.

These things should quickly level out as the development proceeds and things become cached.

But I don't recall anything other than the loading and caching of the simulator taking what you might be perceiving as a substantial delay on other than the first run, or change of, device simulator.

Does this not match what you're experiencing?

 

[thizisweird]

You are quite on the nose with all of that. Maybe I'll power through a single app and see if the problem persists from start to finish on a bored night lol. I was really wanting to learn this as a little side project for personalised apps, so maybe it's just me being impatient. I've never experienced any real slowdowns on this computer, and even FCPX runs like a champ when a lesser GPU is in it. Huh..... quite possible that persistence is the key here.

Based on what you said, the only part that doesn't match up is that certain things, in my personal/inexperienced opinion, should stay cached in a project (and I'd expect a "system cache" like in Windows). When opening up a project that I had closed due to these slowdowns, the exact same wait period pops back up for the exact same thing. I will admit that I haven't proceeded very far at all, so it's very possible that things just aren't cached yet and the computer is indeed that slow for these processes.

I'll wait for a good night to test my patience and update this if there's anything new/problems improve. Might be a while for that, but I would like to get myself programming at some point in the near future