Building Modern Frameworks addresses versioning and the importance of getting the API right the first time. Then, it says every app has its own copy of the framework. So then, can't I change my framework carelessly, i.e., without worrying about breaking other apps that are using older versions of my framework?
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If you want people using your framework to have to do all the work to update their code to work with your new version every time they update – dan Mar 20 '16 at 16:41
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What do you mean "carelessly"....? – l'L'l Mar 20 '16 at 23:00
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@l'L'l I mean what it says after "i.e." – ma11hew28 Mar 25 '16 at 18:22
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Thank you, all. :-) So then for me, the answer is mostly yes (I can) because I tend to prefer to give up backwards compatibility in exchange for forward progress. As the great Alexander Graham Bell once said: "When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." Plus, nobody else (that I know of) is using my custom frameworks, although I have published them to Github. To anyone who is: I'm sorry, but you may have to update your code if you update a framework. I'll add that as a disclaimer. – ma11hew28 Mar 25 '16 at 18:48
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If we're talking about your own app on iOS, you can do whatever you like. The "framework" is merely a module like any other module; it is included in the app and is simply part of the app's code, so if you revise it, the next update gets the revision and the new code that uses it and there's no problem.
On OS X, however, there's an ability to install a framework into the library where the app will see it. Clearly in that case the code that uses the framework must be careful about versioning. Similarly, even on iOS, if you are using your framework as a way to convey a module to other developers, you must try not to break heedlessly their existing code that uses your framework.
matt
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