Library for both iOS and OS X apps?
For a while now I have been killing spare time by creating a 2D game programming toolkit/library. It is written in Objective C, and consists of an OpenGL rendering system and a whole bunch of AI, physics code, a bunch of specialized containers and other game related stuff. Apart from the OpenGL based View mechanism (obviously), most of this code should be easily portable to iOS since it only uses the Foundation Framework and that framework appears to be implemented on iOS. So far I have only been testing the various components using a Cocoa NSOpenGLView but now I want to create a OS X/iOS library.
My Question is:
What's the best strategy for creating an Objective-C library that can be integrated into either iOS or OS X applications?
The Xcode 'New Project' dialog offers only:
iPhone OS; Library:
- Cocoa Touch Static Library.
Mac OS X, Framework and Library:
- Cocoa Framework
- Cocoa Library
- Bundle
- BSD C Library
- STL C++ Library
- JNI Library
At first glance none of these seems to be intended for creating a library that can be integrated into either OS X or iOS applications.
Answer
Well, I finally found the correct set of Google search terms, so to answer my own question (DOH!), it seems to be possible to share code, at least between iPhone apps and possibly also iPhone and OS X apps within certain limits. You have to create a 'static library' and use 'cross-project references':
http://www.clintharris.net/2009/iphone-app-shared-libraries/
http://www.amateurinmotion.com/articles/2009/02/08/creating-a-static-library-for-iphone.html
http://zetetic.net/blog/2010/02/15/building-static-libraries-to-share-code-on-iphone-and-mac-os-x-projects/
http://weston-fl.com/blog/?p=808
Haven't tested any of this yet but it looks promising.