iOS Prefix.pch best practices

Question

I have seen many developers that add various convenience macros to the Prefix.pch of their iOS projects.

What do (or don\'t) you recommend adding to the iOS Prefix.p

Answer 1

create an header file "macros.h"

import this header into Prefix.pch

In this macros.h put all the frameworks and other important things.

If you are worried about performance, don't worry, look what apple says:

Headers and Performance

If you are worried that including a master header file may cause your program to bloat, don’t worry. Because OS X interfaces are implemented using frameworks, the code for those interfaces resides in a dynamic shared library and not in your executable. In addition, only the code used by your program is ever loaded into memory at runtime, so your in-memory footprint similarly stays small. As for including a large number of header files during compilation, once again, don’t worry. Xcode provides a precompiled header facility to speed up compile times. By compiling all the framework headers at once, there is no need to recompile the headers unless you add a new framework. In the meantime, you can use any interface from the included frameworks with little or no performance penalty.

also in my macros.h I put a lot of constants like:

// delegate
#define UIAppDelegate (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate]
#define APPDELEGATE   ((AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate])

// system
#define IS_IPHONE_4INCH (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM()==UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone && [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.height==568)
#define IS_IPAD                     (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad)

// screen size
#define IS_IPAD (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad)
#define IS_IPHONE (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone)
#define IS_IPHONE_4 (IS_IPHONE && [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 480.0)
#define IS_IPHONE_5 (IS_IPHONE && [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 568.0)
#define IS_IPHONE_6 (IS_IPHONE && [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 667.0)
#define IS_IPHONE_6PLUS (IS_IPHONE && [[UIScreen mainScreen] nativeScale] == 3.0f)
#define IS_IPHONE_6_PLUS (IS_IPHONE && [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 736.0)
#define IS_RETINA ([[UIScreen mainScreen] scale] == 2.0)
#define IS_RETINA_DISPLAY ([[UIScreen mainScreen] respondsToSelector:@selector(displayLinkWithTarget:selector:)] && ([UIScreen mainScreen].scale == 2.0))
#define IS_PORTRAIT                 UIInterfaceOrientationIsPortrait([[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation])
#define IS_LANDSCAPE                UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape([[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation])

//system version
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_LESS_THAN(v) ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] == NSOrderedAscending)
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN(v) ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] == NSOrderedDescending)

// math
#define DEGREES_TO_RADIANS(angle) ((angle) / 180.0 * M_PI)
#define RADIANS_TO_DEGREES(radians) ((radians) * (180.0 / M_PI))

// cores
#define RGB(r,g,b)    [UIColor colorWithRed:(r)/255.0 green:(g)/255.0 blue:(b)/255.0 alpha:1]
#define RGBA(r,g,b,a) [UIColor colorWithRed:(r)/255.0 green:(g)/255.0 blue:(b)/255.0 alpha:a]
#define MAKECOLOR(R, G, B, A) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)R/255.0f) green:((float)G/255.0f) blue:((float)B/255.0f) alpha:A]
#define MAKECOLORFROMHEX(hexValue) [UIColor colorWithRed: ((float)((hexValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((hexValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(hexValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]



//customizations
#define SHOW_STATUS_BAR               [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO withAnimation:UIStatusBarAnimationNone];
#define HIDE_STATUS_BAR               [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:YES withAnimation:UIStatusBarAnimationNone];

#define SHOW_NAVIGATION_BAR           [self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:FALSE];
#define HIDE_NAVIGATION_BAR           [self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:TRUE];

#define VC_OBJ(x) [[x alloc] init]
#define VC_OBJ_WITH_NIB(x) [[x alloc] initWithNibName : (NSString *)CFSTR(#x) bundle : nil]

#define RESIGN_KEYBOARD [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow] endEditing:YES];

#define CLEAR_NOTIFICATION_BADGE                       [UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber = 0;
#define REGISTER_APPLICATION_FOR_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE  [[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:(UIRemoteNotificationTypeBadge | UIRemoteNotificationTypeSound | UIRemoteNotificationTypeAlert)]

#define HIDE_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_INDICATOR                 [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:NO];
#define SHOW_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_INDICATOR                 [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];