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How can I force an application that uses my own framework to use other frameworks needed by it? I’m looking for a way to make it automatically, if that’s possible. I mean, I know I can include the requiered frameworks by hand but wouldn’t it be nice if the application didn’t know about the components required by my framework?!?


Are you sure you’re talking about recursion? Do you have a situation where Framework A uses Framework B, which links to Framework A in turn? Or do you just want to make sure that any application which links to Framework A will also, automatically and transparently, link to Framework B?

If it’s the second scenario, it’s easy:

Compile Time: If you’re worried about giving application-writers compile-time access to headers in Framework B without having to explicitly link to it, link to it in Framework A and chuck the following line into the public header for Framework A…

#import <B/B.h> // (where B is the name of your subsidiary framework, obviously.

Runtime: If Framework B is part of the MacOS, then the required dynamic linking should happen anyway, whenever the application is launched. If both A and B are frameworks you have written, embed Framework B in Framework A (see EmbeddingFrameworksInApplications for details).

–ToM

You can also load frameworks dynamically at runtime, just as you load other bundles. You can have your framework A load framework B at runtime. If framework B contains classes that are subclasses or conform to protocols in framework A or your application, then your application will never know that they came from somewhere else, and you wouldn’t have to include the headers at compile time.

–TheoHultberg/Iconara

Actually I wanted to know the details of how to do it. I’m writting a framework, A, which uses the OpenGl framework. However, when I use framework A in my application, I get an error message like this: _glBegin defined in indirectly referenced dynamic library. So, after all, I need to include OpenGl framework to my app project. Doesn’t frameworks allow to include automatically other frameworks?!? (Sorry about the recursive word…. I knew it wasn’t the right one but couldn’t think of a better choice ;)

–Jose


Sure, the recursive linking happens automatically. What doesn’t happen automatically is when you use a symbol in a recursively linked framework. It works fine if one framework uses symbols from another, but this error means that your app is using symbols from a framework which it’s only getting indirectly, and that’s not allowed. (Because, for example, what happens if the directly linked framework stops linking the indirect one? Kaboom!)