Learning Objective-C 2.0: A Hands-On Guide to Objective-C for Mac and iOS Developers

8. Frameworks

Imagine that you have some good carpentry skills and need to build a house. You could take your tools into the woods and build your house by cutting down trees, hewing timber, and making everything that you need, by hand, from the raw materials. The resulting cabin might be a gem of craftsmanship, but this is hardly an efficient way to obtain a usable dwelling. A more efficient procedure would be to go to your local builder’s supply store and investigate the fine collection of pre-made doors, windows, and other components. The Objective-C equivalent of your local builder’s supply store is a set of frameworks. Frameworks are repositories of predefined classes and useful functions that you can use in building your applications. They ...