Segues vs addSubView on iOS

Question

What are the advantages of using segues vs managing view controllers and subviews like we did pre-iOS 5.

Pre iOS 5 I might: Build XIB files for my various Views then do something like [myVC.view addSubView:newVC.view];

vs Segues You get the advantage of working with storyboards and the functionality of passing data between view controllers (which was easily accomplished pre iOS 5 in multiple ways).

So to me it looks like the only advantage of using segues is that you can use storyboards and pass data between VCs.

Is that right? Or are there other advantages?

Answer 1

one of the down sides that can be added to Kunai Balani's answer is that it makes working with a team with version control more difficult if many people are working on the same storyboard. my svn gets really confused when 2 people make an edit on the storyboard.

if you are not working with a team then you can disregard this disadvantage

Answer 2

There are several advantages :

1) Communication. Storyboard (and thus use of segues) is makes it easy to understand the flow of your application. This gives other developers an ease of understanding of the structure of view controllers without looking through any code or debugging.

2) You save time by using segues. Just imagine doing push and pop everywhere all around your application. If you need to change transition (lets say modal transition animation style) for all your view-controllers you have to go and search for each and every view controller then modify it. With storyboard all of them are at one place. It's easy to modify their transition style with just modifying one attribute.

3) Ease of debugging. Lets say your application crashed during a push in navigation controllers. With story board you get the identifier for your segue which caused this. No need to follow stack trace across your UINavigation Controller.