One of the strangely useful features of XCode 3 and 4 is the column-wise copy-and-paste.  But a change in XCode 4 takes away column-pasting.

Not seen this before?  Just hold the option-key while you drag a selection in XCode 3 or 4.  The text cursor will be replaced with a “+” and you can select columns of text right out of the middle of a document. (It helps if the text has vertically-oriented columns.)  It made me chuckle the first time I used it to select a column of tabs and paste them into the middle of a bunch of declarations to move them over all at once.

Pasting in a column required adjustment in XCode 3.  It would paste in the same vertical fashion as the copy, so it was easy to write over quite a bit if you weren’t careful with giving yourself space.  But then that made it interesting too.  I copied a column of member variables and pasted them all at the ends of a series of @property directives in one shot.  The same for the series of @synthesize directives.

In XCode 4, while you can copy a column, pasting it is essentially the same as having copied from any other text. Pasting does not happen in columns.

Admittedly, I did convert my columns to regular text pasting with a quick paste and re-copy in an empty file once in a while because that is what was needed.

Still,  I think I’ll miss the ability to paste in a column.