What are the advantages/disadvantages of Cocoa frameworks, libraries, and bundles?

Question

I have the following requirement.

I need to implement dll kind of thing on mac.I need to create a backend library which can be loaded dynamically.This backend library will contain the cocoa classes and c++ classes.

What is advantage/disadvantage of cocoa framework,I was googling so far,I was not able to figure out the best one.Please give me some suggestion.Is cocoa framework also loaded dynamically?

Answer 1

The main difference between a dynamic library and a framework is that a framework can contain resources (images, sound files, nibs, etcetera) and header files. When you use a dynamic library, these are separate.

Both a framework and a dynamic library are loaded at runtime. If your library will only be used on Mac OS X, I recommend creating a framework because it is easier to manage since everything is in one folder.

Bundles (the white LEGO bricks) are almost exclusively used as plug-ins. If you want to create a plug-in interface you should accept bundles and you should provide a framework the bundles can link against. Bundles are also loaded at runtime.

Answer 2

这是一个体面的教程 （PDF格式），它更深入地解释了普通库和框架之间的差异。