Regarding the question whether Xcode is worth paying the $4.99 at the store, or becoming a developer, consider this:
I bought the App Store version. I spend considerable amount of time in front of Xcode, mainly for C++. The software itself is a good improvement over the previous version. But moving it to the App Store has been a horrible experience. I summarized my experience in a posting on the App Store, which surprisingly still does not appear as feedback. Hmmm.
The store installer is not the same as the developer xcode installer. The developer version, like the original, gives you options what SDK to install. The store version installs all 10 gigs of Xcode glory with zero options, plus the 5 gigs it takes itself, which you can not delete. You can later delete 9 gigs worth of iPhone SDKs under ‘platforms’ folder, but I found that out after 2 hours of fiddling.
Software Update does not ‘partial’ update the store version, unlike the original (and I presume the developer version). Every update requires a new download of 4.5 gigs from the store (and not through Software Update).
But wait, it gets better, it will not ‘download update’, unless you still have the original, because that’s how it sees that you have it installed. Forced to keep the installer in the Applications folder, we are now borderline 20 gigs in. On an SSD, this is a huge concern.
UPDATE: I found out later, that there is a way to work around keeping the original installer by using the ‘purchased’ button to initiate a re-download, but that was far from obvious.
Last but not the least, the Mac App Store itself is real buggy. Despite my best efforts, it would not display the 4.01 update under the updates section. After hours of wasted time, I realized that I can download the update from under ‘purchased’, only to discover that it gives an error message stating that I purchased the item under another account, which is incorrect. Don’t have another one. More fiddling around, and find out that (counterintuitively) deleting the original installer will make this error message go away.
I do not think upgrading from version 4.0 to 4.01 should take 3 hours, through a surreal experience, requiring 9 gig (total) download, and 30 gigs of space, unless you uninstall Xcode 4.0 prior to installing 4.01. This is what you get for $4.99. An insane experience from a (formerly) insanely great company.
UPDATE 2: To re-download, delete Xcode Installer, which was sitting in the Applications Folder. After that, under ‘purchased’ (but not ‘updates’) the item became downloadable. Downloading delivers the newer version. Before deleting, you may want to compress it by right clicking on it, then delete the original. That way you have a saved copy that the App Store can not see. If it works, then toss the compressed copy.
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