Cocoa® Programming

Using Disk Images

If a Cocoa application is distributed on a CD-ROM, installation of the application can often be simple. Users just drag a package directory from the CD-ROM to a location on the local hard disk. Even if a special installer application is needed, users can simply double-click the icon for a file on the CD-ROM to start the installation. Apple’s Finder application ensures that the application’s package directory appears to be a single file on both the CD-ROM and the hard disk. Users do not see the multitude of files that actually compose the application, so there is no chance of confusing users. Users cannot accidentally copy only some of the needed files or change the organization of the files. However, many applications are distributed ...