Xcode Workspace vs Nested Projects

Viewed 9830

I don't understand the use of an Xcode workspace to organize projects with dependencies on one another. For instance I see a lot of developers create workspace structures that look like this:

Workspace
|-- App
|-- A Common Library
|-- Another Common Library

What benefit does this provide? If anyone opens the "App" project directly won't they be unable to actually build the app? They'd have to realize that a workspace exists with the necessary dependencies.

It seems to me like the better approach is to use nested projects like this:

App
|-- Libraries
|   |-- A Common Library
|   |-- Another Common Library

Then no project exists that cannot be built. It also seems more in line with Git's idea of submodules.

The only use I see for a workspace is to group common projects with no dependencies on one another. I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this because I may be missing something.

2 Answers
Related