RE: Simple Port Traffic?
RE: Simple Port Traffic?
- Subject: RE: Simple Port Traffic?
- From: Fritz Anderson <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 12:34:13 -0500
At 5:43 PM +0200 5/30/2001, Jens Baumeister wrote:
> From: Fritz Anderson [mailto:email@hidden]
...
> The header seems to make it clear enough to start:
>
/System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Versions/B/Headers/NSMailDelivery.h
Note however that we're dealing with officially undocumented APIs here.
Apple's stance on that issue is somewhat ambivalent - on the one hand some
of these APIs (including Message.framework) are advertised to developers
("includes APIS for sendig and receiving e-mail"), on the other hand
developers are strongly discouraged from using anything that's not
documented. In any case: If it's not official, it might break any time.
(Memorable quote from an Apple employee during WWDC: "No, you really
shouldn't use that private method, since we could change it any time. In
fact, I think I'm going to rename it just to annoy you." :) )
On the trivial, personal point, I'll remark that I was responding to
the question of where the Message framework was documented.
I would, however, like clarification on the larger point you raise:
Message.framework is found in /System/Library/Frameworks, alongside
OpenGL, Foundation, IOKit, and AppKit. NSMailDelivery.h includes at
least as much documentation as is provided for any class in those
frameworks, and more than, for instance, NSStatusBar. It is, as you
say, advertised to developers.
If the Message framework is advertised, but "private;" if it is
"undocumented," while providing average-quality documentation; if it
is "strongly discouraged," though not one word of discouragement
appears anywhere; if Apple installs it high up in the /System
filesystem, but it is "unofficial;" then those words are not being
used in their common meanings, and I wish someone would explain.
I'd think, if the use of a Cocoa API might be deprecated, that Apple
might do what it did with Carbon, and identify the API as (at least)
"Under Consideration."
In the mean time, I gather it was supposed to be obvious that the
Message framework was deprecated. How, for future reference, should
I have known it was deprecated, and not simply underdocumented?
-- F