What happens to .NIB ->. XIB?

Question

What happens with the NIB-> XIB change somewhere between Xcode 3.0 and 3.1? Is there any difference with this name change that I should know while I look through tutorials that mention nothing but the .nib file?

Answer 1

XIB is very cool. they are mostly not compiled by NIB (in XML format if memory helps me)

during the build process, they are converted to NIB for deployment in the final product.

Answer 2

As I understand it, xib files are x ml n ib files. Xib files are compiled into tips when creating the application. The xib format was created because nib files do not mix well with version control (because they are not text), while a plain text XML file works well.

Answer 3

Other answers and a link explain what XIB files are, but not about specific changes.

The new .xib format in .xib format was introduced with Leopard (and Xcode 3.0) in 2007, but I believe that .nib remained the default, primarily for compatibility with older versions of Xcode and OS X. There was a transition from Xcode 3.1 on .xib as the preferred format. However, most of the documentation has not been updated, perhaps partly because the difference is quite small from the point of view of a regular developer.

I definitely reiterate that XIB files are much better than NIB files, especially when using version control. (Flat files are much easier to manage than catalog packages in most tools.)

Answer 4

An XIB file ( X ML I nterface B ) was introduced into Xcode because NIB files ( N xt I nterface B uilder) were not user-friendly / editable. XIBs are developed in a raw XML document format, which makes the source code human-readable. Although the older NIB file attachments where they are edited were still a bit more complicated than a simple XIB, they contained several files, including XML XIB. Most NIBs are now compiled and cannot be read by anything other than a Mac, so they can read them. Apple started using compiled NIB files because people could read and understand code added to other peoples programs: o. Xcode now uses the ibtool command to compile nib. If you want to know more about compiled Nibs, go to my detailed answer to this post.