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VendorKit – an iOS library management system (vendorkit.com)

47 points by keithpitt ↗ HN
VendorKit makes the process of using and managing libraries in iOS easy. VendorKit is modeled after Bundler. VendorKit streamlines the installation and update process for dependent libraries. It also tracks versions and manages dependencies between libraries.

8 comments

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jakehow
Interesting, but only seems to go half way. Half the battle is getting library maintainers to package things in a sane manner.

This alternative has been working really well for us so far: https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods

It has the added benefit of encouraging good practices in library development as described here: http://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/04/04/using-open-source-stat...

abijlani
There is already a vendorspec file for libraries with dependencies. I don't see why that can't become the standard for all libraries.
jakehow
Copying files willy nilly without any etiquette around packaging doesn't seem like a good standard to me.
nupark2
If library authors release built, static libraries + headers (possibly as a framework), then this approach (UNIX packaging system style) is basically unnecessary.

As it is, I rarely have trouble incorporating 3rd party libraries into my projects.

zoul
You can’t ship your own frameworks when building for the App Store, so there are mostly just static libraries available for the iOS. And these can be a bit of a pain to set up right, I wrote two short articles about it:

http://zmotula.tumblr.com/post/10157814684

But you’re right – once the library developer packages his code as a static library with good project settings, there are few problems left.

steipete
I'm also suggesting https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods. Better solution, better support from the community, actively deployed.