simple ques.: how to open new empty editor file in Xcode 4.0?

Thanks for the reply. Surprisingly, I don't have that as an option (I've attached a pic of what my File/New submenu looks like). So perhaps my question is not so simple [!], and should instead be: why doesn't my submenu look like yours? It couldn't be because I have v. 4.0 (Build 4A304a) rather than 4.0.2, could it? Did I need to do something special when I installed it?

Alas, that doesn't work either (I had already tried that). When I click on the Empty Icon I don't get an empty file. Instead, I get a dialog box asking me to create a project. Then when it's finished I get this:

Now, once I've done this, THEN I can do (because it's no longer grayed out) File/New/New File/Other/Empty (so this, at least, now explains why my submenu looked different from K T's: he must already have had a project created, while I had not). But besides having all these unnecessary steps (since I have no interest in creating a project), it still doesn't give me just the simple text editor I used to be able to get; instead I get this more complicated-looking window with what looks like a debugger, which I'm not using:

On the other hand, if I open one of my existing C++ programs in XCode, then I do get just exactly the type of text editor window I used to be able to get just by directly doing cmd-shift-N. So does anyone know how to get to this directly, without creating a project, etc.?:

xnav: Yes, that's correct, and what you're recommending is equivalent what I've been doing. But it's real kludgey to have to do the extra steps each time, particularly if you're creating lots of small C++ test programs. So what you're saying is that XCode no longer has the capability to just create (from the menu) a simple text editor file like it used to?

K T: so you're saying that your version can do exactly what I asked (create a simple text editor file, without the debugger interface, as pictured immediately above) without having to first build a project?

OK, I will do that and report back!🙂

[Normally I would have just updated to the latest version before posting, but reinstalling XCode's a bit more involved for me (e.g., to save space on my SSD I'd moved the install program elsewhere after installation, so I have to retrieve it; then there were some authorization issues with Apple, etc.), plus I'd recalled reading differences between 4.0.2 and 4.0 just had to do with installation failure problems, not functionality; just wanted to let you know I wasn't being lazy.]

OK, K T, I did what you asked. I now have the same build as you (4.0.2 • 4A2002a). And I find the behavior is . . . unchanged! I can get the same window you pictured in your last email (as I could before). But as I stated earlier, I can't get there unless I've first created a project. And, when I click on Empty, I get a window that looks like the second picture in my above post, not the third.

Nah, rather not risk it, since I'd only want to change the editor, while leaving the rest of the package, which includes the latest compilers, alone. Since XCode is complex, there may be links/compatibilities between the editor and the rest of the package that I could damage. And I don't want to make a research project out of it. So unless someone else chimes in, it looks like I have my answer: Xcode 4 doesn't do what I want, so I'll just have to keep doing what I've been doing which was essentially equivalent your earlier suggested solution.

I should add that one other bit of odd/inconvenient behavior is that if I do open a stand-alone C++ file this way, work on it, save it, and close it, when I do File->Open Recent there's nothing there, except once when I saw all my recent files (and I don't know what I did differently then....). I'm guessing it just doesn't like files that aren't part of a project.