How to Install Xcode 4 in 79 Easy Steps.

I decided to install Xcode 4. When I tried once before there was a cost so I didn’t bother. But for a while now it has been free to download. Here’s how to get it:

1. Go to https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
2. Click on the View in Mac App Store button and open it.
3. Spend a few moments trying to determine how to install it from the window that opens. Decide to click the button with only the label ‘Free’. The button mysteriously transforms into a button labelled ‘Install’. Click that.
4. Click the button in the dialog that tells you that Xcode can only be installed on Mac OS X 10.7 and later.
5. File a support request so someone will come and provide you will an updated Mac OS X 10.8 installation.
6. Copy the Mac OS X 10.8 installer onto your disk.
7. Open the installer and click OK in the dialog that tells you that the installer only runs on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and later.
8. Go the Apple menu and select Software Update and perform a system update.
9. Wait for a bit and restart your system.
10. Open the installer and click through a couple of dialogs.
11. Click OK in the dialog that tells you something about some virtual machine that could not be shut down.
12. Click OK in the dialog that tells you that the Mac OS X 10.8 installer crashed.
13. Open the installer again and click through the same couple of dialogs again. This time it works fine.
14. Wait 15 minutes for the progress bar to tick down from ’34 minutes remaining’ to ’30 minutes remaining’ and then go to bed.
15. Later, wake up and click though a dialog asking for a network password.
16. Click Cancel in the dialog that tells you that system updates are now available.
17. Notice some new icons on the dock and click them just to see what they are.
18. Click the double arrows on the upper right corner of the window that weren’t in previous OS versions of one of the new applications (some notepad type thing). The application fills the screen.
19. Spend a few moments trying to figure out how to leave the full screen mode. Unable to, find that moving the mouse to the top of the screen sometimes reveals the menubar. Select Quit from the menu after a few failed attempts.
20. Go back to https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
21. Click on the View in Mac App Store button again.
22. Click the ‘Free’ button again and then its transformed form ‘Install’.
23. Enter your Apple ID and password. Fail to remember it from so long ago and click the forgot password button.
24. Enter your email address and press the button to send a notification.
25. Check your email and click the link in the message you receive.
26. Enter a new password.
27. Shake fist at your password must contain a capital letter message.
28. Add a capital letter to your password.
29. Shake fist again at your password must contain a number message.
30. Add a number to your password.
31. Successfully change your password.
32. Go back to the app store application and try to figure out out to get it to use the new password and continue installing.
33. Click the button that has now transformed yet again into one labelled ‘Installing’. Nothing happens.
34. Quit and again go back to the Xcode page in the app store.
35. Click the ‘Free’ button, click the ‘Install’ button.
36. Enter your Apple ID and new password in the dialog that opens.
37. The password dialog reappears. Think that maybe your Apple ID was wrong so enter a different one. Doesn’t work.
38. Try the original name and password again. The dialog reappears. Read the dialog more carefully. Ah ha! Realize that this second dialog on first glance looks the same but is subtely different with a button that says ‘Billing Info’ instead of the OK button.
39. Click the ‘Billing Info’ button and get presented with a new window asking you to enter your credit card info because the existing card had expired.
40. Go back to the App Store just to see whether the ‘Free’ button had secretly transformed into a ‘Now only $100’ button. Nope.
41. Quit the app store and start it again.
42. Look through the menus and click the View My Account menuitem on the Store menu.
43. Wondering whether you will get charged, decide to update the credit card information from there.
44. Go back to the Xcode page for the fourth time, click the Free button and then the Install button.
45. Enter your Apple ID and password. This time, no credit card dialog appears. Instead a window appears asking you to set up your security questions.
46. Look through the provided questions and realize that you can’t answer any of them.
47. Enter your email address in the backup email address field in the lower area of the window and decide to just click OK without setting up security questions.
48. Shake fist that it doesn’t let you continue.
49. Make up some answers to the questions and click OK.
50. After another warning, change the backup email address to a different one so it doesn’t complain about it being the same as your ordinary one.
51. Click OK and the window disappears. The only thing visible is the app store Xcode page. The transforming button says “Installing” but there is no progress indicator or anything similar.
52. Wait a bit and wonder if anything is happening.
53. Click buttons in the app store interface. Find that the Purchases button along the top shows a download and install progress bar for Xcode.
54. Wait until it installs.
55. Close the app store application.
56. Double-click the Xcode icon on the dock. A dialog appears asking you to install a “Java SE 6 runtime”. Click the Not Now button. Xcode doesn’t open.
57. After some thought, wonder if the new version was really installed. Check the app store again. Yep, the magic button now reads “Installed”.
58. Wonder if the new version of Xcode was installed in a different place. Open a Finder window to check.
59. Try to find the /Developer directory where the previous version of Xcode is installed. After a few moments of searching around, realize that the Finder window contains no ‘Macintosh HD’ item on the sidebar any more, so you can’t get to the /Developer directory.
60. Use the Terminal instead and find that the old version of Xcode is there in the /Developers directory and there is a new version in the /Applications directory.
61. Open the Applications flyout list from the dock.
62. Try to get to the Xcode icon, but the flyout list has no scrollbar nor any resize handles. Wonder if you’ll only be able to start applications that start with the letter P and earlier from now on.
63. Think for a moment and try to scroll using the trackpad. Success! Click the Xcode icon.
64. This time a setup dialog appears, so assume that this is the new version.
65. Click though a couple of dialogs and realize that all of your settings from the previous version have been reset.
66. Go back to the terminal and try to open development tools from the command line as you did with the previous version. They don’t work.
67. Assume that the path is set incorrectly.
68. Try to open .bashrc in an editor. It doesn’t work as the path is set incorrectly.
69. Open TextEdit in an editor, remembering to use the trackpad to scroll the flyout list of applications. The open dialog doesn’t show hidden files.
70. Open the terminal and open .bashrc from the command line and change the path to point to the new version.
71. Try to use the developer commands from the command line. Nothing.
72. Click the Xcode icon on the dock to use the Xcode editor. It asks you to install a “Java SE 6 runtime”. Click Not Now.
73. Delete that Xcode icon and replace it with the icon for the new version of Xcode.
74. Open the new version of Xcode. Look around the menus for a bit.
75. Open the Xcode preferences dialog and look around at the settings. Click the Downloads tab. Select the Install button next to Command Line Tools.
76. Wait for the command line tools to be installed.
77. Try the command line tools from the command line. They seem to work.
78. Check if the Xcode bug you’ve been annoyed with for the last year is fixed. It’s been fixed and replaced with a different annoying bug.
79. Go back to the Xcode page in the app store. The Free button now reads ‘Sucker’.

And that’s how to install Xcode 4. And remember, it’s free!