Why Are My Dependent Frameworks Being Pulled In Twice? - cocoa

[Note: This question is, I think, dealing with the consequences of what prompted this never answered question]
I have a workspace that includes both a framework target and an application target. When I run the application many messages of the following form come to the console: Class "C" is implemented in both "Binary1" and "Binary2". One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
Here is a sampling of those messages:
objc[65093]: Class FIRAIdentifiers is implemented in both /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/GenerationOfNow-bmsridmvnbtgfiduzqqomicqvsns/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/VerticonsToolbox.framework/VerticonsToolbox (0x10804bd20) and /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/33628599-9570-4784-B324-DAC383435F75/data/Containers/Bundle/Application/26411B80-FB71-44E9-AA64-05FEF20B9F08/GenerationOfNow.app/GenerationOfNow (0x10674a150). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
objc[65093]: Class FIRASearchAdReporter is implemented in both /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/GenerationOfNow-bmsridmvnbtgfiduzqqomicqvsns/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/VerticonsToolbox.framework/VerticonsToolbox (0x10804bd70) and /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/33628599-9570-4784-B324-DAC383435F75/data/Containers/Bundle/Application/26411B80-FB71-44E9-AA64-05FEF20B9F08/GenerationOfNow.app/GenerationOfNow (0x10674a1a0). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
objc[65093]: Class FIRAZeroingWeakContainer is implemented in both /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/GenerationOfNow-bmsridmvnbtgfiduzqqomicqvsns/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/VerticonsToolbox.framework/VerticonsToolbox (0x10804bde8) and /Users/Robert/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/33628599-9570-4784-B324-DAC383435F75/data/Containers/Bundle/Application/26411B80-FB71-44E9-AA64-05FEF20B9F08/GenerationOfNow.app/GenerationOfNow (0x10674a218). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
All of the duplicated class definitions come from Firebase frameworks which were installed into my workspace via the Pod file demonstrated in this question. Here is a screen shot of my workspace's Navigator:
Notice that both the framework target (VerticonsToolbox) and the application target (GenerationOfNow) are referencing the pods.
It seems to me that the proper way for a framework to be built is that it should not embed whatever frameworks it is linked against. It should be the responsibility of whatever application uses that framework to pull in the other dependencies. And indeed, when I examine the build phases for the framework VerticonsToolbox there is no option for specifying embedded binaries whereas there is for the application GenerationOfNow.
So, I am at a lose as to how to proceed. I suspect that what is happening is a result of the things that are put in place when pod install is executed. Can anyone advise me?
BTW: Can anyone point me to a good write up on how Xcode builds, what the various settings are, what tools there are for examining the binaries, etc? With Xcode everything is fine until it isn't and then there is this big, mysterious soup of stuff. Jeez!

Related

Dividing a Swift application's components into Swift modules

I'm writing an iOS application in Swift, and I'm trying to figure out how to organize the project into separate modules. I'm using an MVVM architecture, and I want to make the Model, ViewModel, and View components separate Swift modules that make only subsets of themselves accessible to the modules that import them. The files in the View would import the ViewModel, and files in the ViewModel would import the Model. How can I accomplish this? Note that I'm not trying to create libraries that multiple applications can share. I'm just trying to enforce separation of components using modules.
EDIT: Maybe the question is, "What mechanism should I use to create modules aside from the one that comes with the initial iOS application project?"
One of the answers in "How do you use Namespaces in Swift?" https://stackoverflow.com/a/24032860/215400 says, "classes (etc) are implicitly scoped by the module (Xcode target) they are in." From that, one might conclude that targets correspond to modules and that the answer is to create separate targets within an Xcode project, but I tried that earlier, and tskulbru is saying that I need multiple Xcode projects.
Regarding multiple Xcode projects, the File > New > Project > iOS Framework & Library > Cocoa Touch Framework option didn't look right because it's supposed to be for things that use UIKit, and two of the modules I want to create shouldn't depend on UIKit. The other "Framework & Library" option, Cocoa Touch static library, isn't an option with Swift.
Another StackOverflow post mentioned using private Pods. After spending an hour working on that, I concluded that it wasn't the right solution because I shouldn't have to edit these modules in different workspaces.
This isn't possible without creating separate projects for the modules you want to create. This is because the way Swift handles namespacing.
Eonil answered this better than me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24032860/215400
(Copy below)
Answered by SevenTenEleven in the Apple dev forum:
Namespaces are not per-file; they're per-target (based on the
"Product Module Name" build setting). So you'd end up with something
like this:
import FrameworkA
import FrameworkB
FrameworkA.foo()
All Swift declarations are considered to be part of
some module, so even when you say "NSLog" (yes, it still exists)
you're getting what Swift thinks of as "Foundation.NSLog".
Also Chris Lattner tweeted about namespacing.
Namespacing is implicit in swift, all classes (etc) are implicitly
scoped by the module (Xcode target) they are in. no class prefixes
needed
From my perspective if you want to encapsulate your components, probably you have two solutions:
Framework
Internal cocoapods
Both solutions will give you fully encapsulated modules, where you can define API that will be available in project through public keyword.
All other things will be not visible in your core project.
Managing your project will cost you a lot more time, but if you write this using SOLID principles, probably you will get more reusable code and those frameworks could be imported to other project just using import definition.

Including a framework without embedding it in the app bundle

I'm still not 100% sure with the framework linking process, but from what I've seen here before nobody has asked a similar question, perhaps because this could be a silly question, but I'll give it a go anyway.
In my current X-Code project, I'm using a custom framework, say example.framework. At the moment, as far as I'm aware of, in order for the program to function with the framework, I need to have it either in /Library/Frameworks, or I need to have it copied into the bundle resources in the build phase.
Would anybody know about adding a framework to a project in a way that it gets compiled into the executable, so I don't have to include the raw framework with the app? I'd rather not share the whole framework...
Thank you in advance! Any suggestions are also welcome!
A Mac OS X framework is basically a shared library, meaning it's a separate binary.
Basically, when your main executable is launched, the OS will load the framework/dylib into memory, and map the symbols, so your main executable can access them.
Note that a framework/dylib (bundled into the application or not), does not need to contain the header files, as those are only needed at compilation time.
With Xcode, you can actually decide whether or not to include the header files, when you are copying the framework to its installation directory (see your build phases).
If you don't copy header files, people won't be able to use your framework/dylib (unless they reverse-engineer it, of course).
If you still think a framework is not suitable for your needs, you may want to create a static library instead.
A static library is a separate object file (usually .a) that is «included» with your final binary, at link time.
This way, you only have a single binary file, containing the code from the library and from your project.

Multiple Boost.Thread Instances OK in a C++ application?

I have an application with a plug-in architecture that is using Boost.Threads as a DLL (specifically, a Mac OS X framework). I am trying to write a plug-in that uses Boost.Threads as well, and would like to link in the library statically. Everything builds fine but the application quickly crashes in my plug-in, deep within the Boost.Threads code. Linking to the DLL version of Boost.Threads seems to resolve the problem, but I'd like my plug-in to be self-contained.
Is it possible to have two instances of Boost.Threads with such a setup (one as a DLL, one statically linked in another DLL)? If so, what might I be missing to make the two instances get along?
Once my team faced a similar problem. For reasons I will not mention at this time, we had to develop a system that used 2 different versions of Boost (threads, system, filesystem).
The idea we came up with and executed was to grab the source code of both versions of Boost we needed, and then tweak one of them to change the symbols and function names to avoid name clashing.
In other words, we replaced all references to the name boost for bubbles inside the sources (or some other name) and also made changes to the compilation so it would build libbubbles instead of libboost.
This procedure gave us 2 sets of libraries, each with having their own binaries and header files.
If you looked at the source code of our application you would see something like:
#include <bubbles/thread.hpp>
#include <boost/thread.hpp>
bubbles::thread* thread_1;
boost::thread* thread_2;
I imagine some of the guys here already faced a similar situation. There are probably better alternatives to the one I suggested above.

Project management and bundling dependencies

I've been looking for ways to learn about the right way to manage a software project, and I've stumbled upon the following blog post. I've learned some of the things mentioned the hard way, others make sense, and yet others are still unclear to me.
To sum up, the author lists a bunch of features of a project and how much those features contribute to a project's 'suckiness' for a lack of a better term. You can find the full article here: http://spot.livejournal.com/308370.html
In particular, I don't understand the author's stance on bundling dependencies with your project. These are:
== Bundling ==
Your source only comes with other code projects that it depends on [ +20 points of FAIL ]
Why is this a problem, especially given point 3, that you have modified your projects dependencies to fit your project's needs, doesn't it therefore make even greater sense that your code should be distributed with its dependencies?
If your source code cannot be built without first building the bundled code bits [ +10 points of FAIL ]
Doesn't this necessarily have to be the case for software built against 3rd party libs? Your code needs that other code to be compiled into its library before the linker can work?
If you have modified those other bundled code bits [ +40 points of FAIL ]
If this is necessary for your project, then it naturally follows that you've bundled said code with yours. If you want to customize a build of some lib,say WxWidgets, you'll have to edit that projects build scripts to bulid the library that you want. Subsequently, you'll have to publish those changes to people who wish to build your code, so why not use a high level make script with the params already written in, and distribute that? Furthermore, (especially in a windows env) if your code base is dependent on a particular version of a lib (that you also need to custom compile for your project) wouldn't it be easier to give the user the code yourself (because in this case, it is unlikely that the user will already have the correct version installed)?
So how would you respond to these comments, and what points may I be failing to take into consideration? Would you agree or disagree with the author's take (or mine), and why?
Edited for clarification.
Your source only comes with other code projects that it depends on.
My project requires project X.
However, since my project depends on secret inner mysteries of X, or a previous release of X, then my project includes a copy of X. Specifically release n.m of X. And no other.
Try to install the latest and greatest X and see what breaks in my project. Since upgrading X broke my project, forget my project. They will not struggle with something that spontaneously breaks after an update. They will find a better open source component.
Hence a FAIL score.
If your source code cannot be built without first building the bundled code bits.
My project doesn't rely on the API to X. It relies on deep, inner linking to specific parts of X, bypassing the API.
If my project on depended on the API to X, then -- for some languages like C or C++ -- my project could compile with only the C or C++ headers, not the binaries.
For Java this is less true, since there is not independent, non-binary header. And for dynamic languages (like Python) this makes no technical sense.
However, even Java and Python have ways to separate interface from implementation. If I rely on implementation (not interface), then I've still created the same essential problem.
If my project depends on C or C++ binaries, and they build things out of order, or upgrade another component without rebuilding mine, things may go badly for them. They may see weirdness, breakage, "instability". My product appears broken. They won't (and can't) debug it. They're done. They'll find something more stable.
Hence a FAIL score.
If you have modified those other bundled code bits.
I have two choices when I modify X.
Get it accepted as part of X.
Fix my program to work with unmodified X.
If my project depends on a modified X, no one can install X simply, correctly and independently. They can't upgrade X, they can't maintain X. They probably can't apply bug fixes or security patches to X.
I've essentially made their job impossible by modifying X.
Hence the FAIL score.
Subsequently, you'll have to publish those changes to people who wish to build your code.
Actually, they'll hate me for that. They don't want to know about the mysterious changes to X. They want to build X according to the rules, then build my stuff according to the rules. They don't want to read, think or be sure that the mystery update patch kit was applied correctly.
Rather than joke around with that, they'll download a competing package. FAIL.
if your code base is dependent on a particular version of a lib (that you also need to custom compile for your project)
That's really shabby. If I depend on a version with custom compiles, they're done looking at my package. They'll find something without version-specific inner mysteries and custom compiles before they'll struggle. FAIL.

Best way to install a custom cocoa framework

I have a custom framework that, following the advice in Apple's Framework Programming Guide >> Installing your framework I install in /Library/Frameworks. I do this by adding a Run Script build phase with the following script:
cp -R build/Debug/MyFramework.framework /Library/Frameworks
In my projects I then link against /Library/Frameworks/MyFramework and import it in my classes like so:
#import <MyFramework/MyFramework.h>
This works very well, except that I always see the following message in my debugger console:
Loading program into debugger…
sharedlibrary apply-load-rules all
warning: Unable to read symbols for "/Users/elisevanlooij/Library/Frameworks/MyFramework.framework/Versions/A/MyFramework" (file not found).
warning: Unable to read symbols from "MyFramework" (not yet mapped into memory).
Program loaded.
Apparently, the compiler first looks in /Users/elisevanlooij/Library/Frameworks, can't find MyFramework, then looks in /Library/Frameworks, does find MyFramework and continues on its merry way. So far this has been more of an annoyance than a real problem, but when runnning unit tests, gdb stops on the (file not found) and refuses to continue. I have solved the problem by adding an extra line to the Run Script Phase
cp -R build/Debug/MyFramework.framework ~/Library/Frameworks
but it feels like sello-taping something that shouldn't be broken in the first place. How can I fix this?
In the past months, I've learned a lot more about frameworks, so I'm rewriting this answer. Please note that I'm talking about installing a framework as part of the development workflow.
The preferred location for installing a public framework (i.e. a framework that will be used by more than one of your apps or bundles) is /Library/Frameworks[link text] because "frameworks in this location are discovered automatically by the compiler at compile time and the dynamic linker at runtime."[Framework Programming Guide]. The most elegant way to do this is in the Deployment section of the Build settings.
As you work on your framework, there are times when you do want to update the framework when you do a build, and times when you don't. For that reason, I change the Deployment settings only in the Release Configuration. So:
Double-click on the framework target to bring up the Target info window and switch to the Build tab.
Select Release in the Configuration selectbox.
Scroll down to the Deployment section and enter the following values:
Deployment Location = YES (click the checkbox)
Installation Build Products Location = /
Installation Directory = /Library/Frameworks
The Installation Build Products Location serves as the root of the installation. Its default value is some /tmp directory: if you don't change it to the system root, you'll never see your installed framework since it's hiding in the /tmp.
Now you can work on your framework as you like in the Debug configuration without upsetting your other projects and when you are ready to publish all you need to do is switch to Release and do a Build.
Xcode 4 Warning
Since switching to Xcode 4, I've experienced a number of problems with my custom framework. Mostly, they are linking warnings in GDB that do not really interfere with the usefulness of the framework, except when running the built-in unit-test. I have submitted a technical support ticket to Apple a week ago, and they are still looking into it. When I get a working solution I will update this answer since the question has proven quite popular (1 kViews and counting).
There's not much reason to put a framework into Library/Frameworks, and it's a lot of work: You'd need to either do it for the user in an Installer package, which is a tremendous hassle to create and maintain, or have installation code in your app (which could only install to ~/L/F, unless you expend the time and effort necessary to make your app capable of installing to /L/F with root powers).
Much more common is what Apple calls a “private framework”. You'll bundle this into your application bundle.
Even frameworks intended for general use by any applications (e.g., Sparkle, Growl) are, in practice, built to be used as private frameworks, simply because the “right” way of installing a single copy of the framework to Library/Frameworks is such a hassle.
The conventional way to do this is to have your framework project and its clients share a common build directory. Xcode will search for framework headers and link against framework binaries in the build folder first, before any other location. So an app project that compiles and links against the header will pick up the most-recently-built one, rather than whatever's installed.
You can then remove the cp -r and instead use the Install Location build setting to place your build product in the final location, using xcodebuild install DSTROOT=/ at the command line. But you'll only need to do this when you're finished, not every time you rebuild the framework.
Naturally, when you distribute your framework it should be installed in /Library/Frameworks; however it seems odd to me that you're doing that with the test/debug versions of your framework.
My first instinct would be to install test versions under ~/Library, as it just makes setting up your test and debug environment that much simpler. If possible, I would expect the debug/test framework to be located in the build tree of the version I'm testing, in which case it's installed as a Private Framework for testing purposes. That would make your life much simpler when it comes time to deal with multiple versions of your framework.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter where the framework is located as long as your application or test suite loads the correct version. Choose the location that makes testing/debugging/development easiest.

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