What ever happened to "shared frameworks"?
What ever happened to "shared frameworks"?
- Subject: What ever happened to "shared frameworks"?
- From: John Siracusa <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:08:15 -0400
I noticed that all references to "shared frameworks" (frameworks inside
an app bundle that can be shared with other apps) are missing from the
current System Overview document. There used to be a whole section on
them, and I still see APIs for getting the "shared frameworks" path
within a bundle:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Reference/
CFBundleRef/Reference/function_group_2.html#//apple_ref/c/func/
CFBundleCopySharedFrameworksURL
Is this feature gone in 10.N or later, where N might be 1 or 2?
I've included the text of the shared frameworks section of the System
Overview (circa 12/2001) below. It sounded like a useful feature to
me. (Ditto for the similar "SharedSupport" directory inside bundles.)
Anyone know if/when shared frameworks were deprecated?
-John
---
Shared Frameworks and the Central Directory
The SharedFrameworks directory contains frameworks that are also part of
the application package, but these frameworks are meant to be shared with
other applications. Shared frameworks of an application are guaranteed to
be forward compatible, whereas frameworks private to an application don9t
have to be. To facilitate sharing of the most recent version of code in
SharedFrameworks, Mac OS X uses a central directory, or registry. This
central directory tracks the versions of shared frameworks and other shared
software in all installed application packages. Before an application
dynamically loads framework code, the system checks the version of the
required framework in SharedFrameworks against the central directory to see
if more a recent version of the same framework is available. If a more
recent version exists, the framework in the SharedFrameworks directory is
ignored and the one identified by the central directory is used. If no
corresponding framework is found in the central directory, or if the
version of the framework is earlier, the framework in the application9s
SharedFrameworks directory is used.
The inclusion of shared frameworks and other shareable software in the
application package contributes to application self-sufficiency. To
install, relocate, or remove an application, users simply drag the
application icon and drop it the appropriate place. An application so
installed might not use the most recent version of a shared framework, but
at least it should be able to execute with the frameworks packaged with it.
By keeping track of versioned frameworks within all application packages,
the central directory ensures that an application remains 3read-only2 and
that pieces of it are not duplicated all over a system. At the same time,
the central directory makes it possible for related applications to use the
latest shared frameworks installed on a system.
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