I’ve developed apps using interface building and without it. Here’s the rundown of why Interface Builder is good AND why it is not.
The good
- Localization – Easy to see how big to make certain buttons when you use another language (e.g. Asian script languages do not take up a lot of space). So you can give the space to something else.
- The WYSIWYG feel - You put a control class on it (or custom UIView subclass) and it will appear exactly how you want it. It also takes less time to develop something useful.
The Bad
- Performance – There is a little performance hit because IB files are XML files which get processed at run time, while doing a UI purely with UIKit code – everything is already in machine readable format.
- Intimidating for beginners – We’ve all been there before, but personally I didn’t learn too much Objective-C / UIKit until I wrote an entire application in code.
The verdict
Personally, I’d go for a bit of both. Interface builder is great for cutting down development time (because you don’t have to hit compile every time you want to see how your app will look). While doing stuff in code is great for making custom objects (subclasses of existing Apple stuff) to make your app look prettier.
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