Core Foundation

Core Foundation is a framework in the Apple operating systems that provides fundamental software services useful to application services, application environments, and to applications themselves. Core Foundation also provides abstractions for common data types, facilitates internationalization with Unicode string storage, and offers a suite of utilities such as plug-in support, XML property lists, URL resource access, and preferences.

Overview

Core Foundation is a C-based API and is part of the Cocoa API and Cocoa Touch API, which are included in macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It provides data management and service features for iOS and OS X applications.

Design

Core Foundation's design is based on two major principles: opaque data types and polymorphism. Opaque data types hide the internal workings of a data type, allowing the user to work with data without understanding the underlying implementation. Polymorphism in Core Foundation allows for the creation of functionally similar but structurally different data types.

Features

Core Foundation provides a variety of features, including:

• Data Types: Core Foundation provides a set of basic data types, such as CFString for strings, CFArray for arrays, and CFDictionary for dictionaries.

• Preferences Services: Core Foundation provides APIs for managing user preferences.

• Plug-in Architecture: Core Foundation provides a simple, straightforward way to implement plug-ins.

• Date and Time Services: Core Foundation provides APIs for managing dates and times.

• File and Network Services: Core Foundation provides APIs for managing files and network connections.

See Also

• Cocoa (API)
• Cocoa Touch
• macOS
• iOS
• watchOS
• tvOS