Interface Builder is barely usable

Question

Created 1w

Replies 4

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I wonder is anyone at Apple still using Interface Builder for anything…

Across Xcode 16.x and 26.x, IB has become increasingly and noticeably slower to open storyboard and xibs. I see zero improvements in Xcode 27 beta.

This morning I had both 26 and 27 going fairly quickly into "application not responding" state when trying to render a rather simple layout in storyboard. What's making it worse is that force-quitting the app and starting again leads straight back into the same storyboard and then locks up again. It does not matter if I manage to switch to a .swift file — it's clearly still doing something in the background related to that storyboard and gets stuck.

I eventually managed to open just the .storyboard (without the project), fix the offending layout bits and now it's at least not getting stuck although it still takes good 5-6s before it renders a layout with about a dozen components.

I assume something with LLM agents is the reason for this issue but come on people — this is infuriatingly incapacitating tool for people like me that are still maintaining UIKit apps.

Answer 1

Claude31 OP

1w

Don't know if that would change anything, but did you try to disable Apple Intelligence in Xcode ? May be Xcode tries to build something from the storyboard ?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcode/comments/1h76ng9/disable_xcodes_apple_intelligence_feature/

or

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Xcode/setting-up-coding-intelligence

Answer 2

Etresoft OP

1w

What you describe sounds exactly like my own experience. It's really slow.

But I'm pretty sure that LLM agents are not involved. It seems noticeably better than it was 2-3 years ago. It doesn't go insane and start moving elements around on its own like it used to.

Unfortunately, I don't see any future for Interface Builder. Many people have already switched to SwiftUI. Ironically enough, Interface Builder is much faster and more reliable than SwiftUI Previews.

Maybe just start scaling back use of Interface Builder. Use it only for top-level objects like windows and view controllers. Do anything lower than that in code. In particular, Interface Builder really struggles with auto layout. So once you feel the need to start doing layout, that's your signal to switch to code.

As more and more people are using AI, you're going to see even less use of Interface Builder. I guess it's time to start the deprecation clock. It's not as if I'll really miss it. I miss what it could have been. I miss the functionality that so many other IDEs have been able to deliver, but Apple never could.

I still remember when Metrowerks CodeWarrior was gold standard. Its UI API PowerPlant was just awful. I think Interface Builder was one of Xcode's (né Project Builder) most attractive features at the time, because it was so much better than PowerPlant or Apple's own MPW.

A code-based UI is definitely possible. I used to use a great product calls Tools Plus for all my UI. It was 100% code-based, but much easier to use than anything else. But Apple took over so much of the logic with MacOS X that the Carbon-based Tools Plus was no longer possible. But I think it the idea might be viable again in the future.

Answer 3

radiantapple OP

1d

Not an option for me, I find code-based auto-layout in UIKit barely readable after say 3-4 components. And I have quite a lot of storyboards with 50+ views and components. None of those were any particular issue to maintain before Xcode 16. Since then, it does not matter if I open UICVCell .xib with 3-4 labels and image views or a storyboard with 50 items - initial opening of the file just takes a while.

IB is such a perfect tool to visually build a layout, I am very sad to see it so neglected.

Sidenote: few major apps I do are still iOS 15+ so SwiftUI is not an option; iOS 18+ is first version of that framework I would consider somewhat feature-complete and usable.

Answer 4

Claude31 OP

1d

IB is such a perfect tool to visually build a layout, I am very sad to see it so neglected.

Fully agree. Doing in code makes is so hard to understand and quasi impossible to maintain. And I don't find SwiftUI so good to design precise UI (where many items need to be precisely positioned).

I compared Xcode 26.3 and 16.4 : 26.3 takes between 9 and 12s to open the first view in IB, instead of 6s.

Would be really interesting to know what it does differently.