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The Reference Library is a comprehensive collection of Apple technical resources, including Articles, Guides, Reference, Release Notes, Sample Code, Technical Notes, and Technical Q&As. Each of the links below leads to the resources for a specific topic.

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Interface Builder User Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Conceptual information and tasks explaining how to use the Interface Builder application to design user interfaces.
Cocoa Guides 2008-11-19
Internationalization Programming Topics (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to support multiple languages in software.
Cocoa Guides 2009-01-06
Is ColorSync thread safe? (HTML) (日本語 HTML)
QA1261: Discusses ColorSync thread-safety issues.
Cocoa Technical Q&As 2003-04-17
iSpend (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates how to incorporate a number of Cocoa Tiger features into a simple application.
Cocoa Sample Code 2005-06-01
ISyncChange Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2006-06-30
ISyncClient Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
An ISyncClient object represents an application, tool, or device that syncs records--for example, Address Book, .Mac, or a mobile phone.
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncFilter Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2006-07-07
ISyncFiltering Protocol Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncManager Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
You use an ISyncManager object to communicate directly with the sync engine to perform administrative operations.
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncRecordReference Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncRecordSnapshot Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2006-07-07
ISyncSession Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
An ISyncSession object is used to manage a single sync operation.
Cocoa Reference 2008-11-19
ISyncSessionDriver Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncSessionDriverDataSource Protocol Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Defines a set of methods that the data source of an ISyncSessionDriver object must implement.
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-11
ISyncUIHelper Protocol Reference (HTML) (PDF)
An informal protocol that provides user interface attributes to the iSync user interface.
Cocoa Reference 2007-10-31
JavaFrameEmbedding example (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Small Cocoa application that demonstrates how to use JavaFrameEmbedding.framework
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-12
JDragNDrop (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Deprecated - Demonstrates building a simple view to implement Drag-and-Drop functionality in Cocoa-Java.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
JNI Development on Mac OS X (HTML)
TN2147: Discusses use of native APIs and UI elements from Java applications
Cocoa Technical Notes 2006-04-17
JSInterpreter (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Simple JavaScript interpreter
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-06
JSPong (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Pong with JavaScript AI
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-06
Kerberos: Highly Secure Single Sign On Authentication in Mac OS X (HTML)
Learn how you can take advantage of Kerberos in your application.
Cocoa Articles 2007-02-05
Key-Value Coding Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Conceptual information about how to access a Cocoa object's values using keys.
Cocoa Guides 2009-02-04
Key-Value Observing Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Explains the Cocoa key-value observing protocol.
Cocoa Guides 2009-05-06
Keychain Services Programming Guide (HTML) (PDF)
This document explains how to use Keychain Services to store and retrieve passwords.
Cocoa Guides 2009-03-12
Keychain Services Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the Keychain Services API, used to create, find, modify, and delete keychain items.
Cocoa Reference 2008-11-19
Launch Services Release Notes (HTML)
Cocoa Release Notes 2007-10-31
Launch Time Performance Guidelines (HTML) (PDF)
Guidelines for improving the launch performance of an application.
Cocoa Guides 2006-04-04
LayerBackedOpenGLView (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
"LayerBackedOpenGLView" provides a simple example of hosting Cocoa controls as subviews of an NSOpenGLView.
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-12
LayoutManagerDemo (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates the layout manager using rollovers with different colors for lines, words and characters under the mouse.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
Leopard Technology Series for Developers: Broadcast Your Application's Content with iChat Theater (HTML)
Leopard Overview article on using the Instant Messaging framework.
Cocoa Articles 2007-05-22
Leopard Technology Series for Developers: Graphics & Media Overview (HTML)
Describes Leopard's graphics and media capabilities.
Cocoa Articles 2007-12-11
Leopard Technology Series for Developers: Leopard Developer Application Technologies Overview (HTML)
Learn how Leopard will help you create powerful and innovative features for your users.
Cocoa Articles 2006-12-07
Leopard Technology Series for Developers: Leopard Developer Tools Overview (HTML)
Learn how Leopard developer tools make it easier than ever to create exciting applications.
Cocoa Articles 2006-11-15
Leopard Technology Series for Developers: Objective-C 2.0 Overview (HTML)
Describes features and capabilities introduced in Objective-C 2.0.
Cocoa Articles 2007-12-11
Link Snoop (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to use PDFKit to scan for and highlight link annotations in PDFs.
Cocoa Sample Code 2005-06-01
LiveVideoMixer3 (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
LiveVideoMixer3 is extended to support Video In via QTKit
Cocoa Sample Code 2006-08-01
LoginItemsAE (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Uses Apple events to manipulate the list of login items (items launched when you log in).
Cocoa Sample Code 2005-10-17
Low-Level File Management Programming Topics (HTML) (PDF)
Explains the low-level ways Cocoa applications can interact with files.
Cocoa Guides 2009-03-05
LSMSmartCategorizer (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates the Latent Semantic Mapping (LSM) framework by automatically categorize RSS feeds.
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-05-09
Mac OS X 10.2 (HTML)
TN2053: Describes software development-related changes provided in system software update Mac OS X 10.2.
Cocoa Technical Notes 2002-09-04
Mac OS X ABI Dynamic Loader Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the functions used to access Mach-O files.
Cocoa Reference 2005-11-09
Mac OS X ABI Function Call Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the function-calling conventions used in the architectures supported by Mac OS X.
Cocoa Guides 2009-02-04
Mac OS X ABI Mach-O File Format Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the data structures that make up the Mach-O file format.
Cocoa Reference 2009-02-04
Mac OS X Code Signing In Depth (HTML)
TN2206: Intermediate to expert level overview of code signing that details specific options and gotchas
Cocoa Technical Notes 2008-08-06
Mac OS X Printing System Overview (HTML) (PDF)
Introduces Apple's printing architecture. Includes a road map for developing software.
Cocoa Guides 2006-02-07
Mac OS X Technology Overview (HTML) (PDF)
Introduces Mac OS X and its technologies.
Cocoa Guides 2008-10-15
Mac OS X: v10.1.1 - v10.1.3 (HTML)
TN2043: Describes changes provided by system software updates 10.1.1 through 10.1.3.
Cocoa Technical Notes 2002-03-06
Making the most of Cocoa bindings in Quartz Composer (HTML)
TN2146: Describes how to best use Cocoa bindings with Quartz Composer.
Cocoa Technical Notes 2006-03-03
ManagedObjectDataFormatter (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
A Data Formatter for Xcode 2.0 and 2.1 that displays NSManagedObject * variables.
Cocoa Sample Code 2005-06-01
Managing QTCompressionOptions - An overview of the QTCompressionOptionsWindow sample (HTML)
TN2219: Introductory overview of the QTCompressionOptionsWindow sample demonstrating one way to manage QTCompressionOptions objects.
Cocoa Technical Notes 2008-03-11
MapLargeFile (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows a technique for mapping files greater than 4GB into memory for faster access.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-11-19
MassiveImage (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to use a CGDataProvider to save a very large image with Image IO
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-09-27
Matrix Programming Guide for Cocoa (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to use Cocoa matrices.
Cocoa Guides 2006-11-07
Maximizing Mac OS X Application Performance (HTML)
Learn how to achieve better performance on Mac OS X.
Cocoa Articles 2003-06-23
Memory Management Programming Guide for Cocoa (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to allocate and deallocate objects in Cocoa.
Cocoa Guides 2009-05-06
Memory Usage Performance Guidelines (HTML) (PDF)
Guidelines for improving the performance of memory-related code.
Cocoa Guides 2006-06-28
MenuItemView (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates embedding an NSView inside a menu item or NSMenuItem.
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-11
Message Framework Reference (HTML)
Describes the Objective-C API for sending email messages through the Mail application.
Cocoa Reference 2008-04-08
MethodReplacement (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates an Objective C 2 compatible way to replace a method in an existing Objective C class.
Cocoa Sample Code 2006-08-01
Model Object Implementation Guide (HTML) (PDF)
Describes issues relating to the design and implementation of model objects
Cocoa Guides 2008-02-08
Monochrome Image (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Applies the NTSC color weighting formula to an image to generate a monochrome version of the image.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-07-16
MoreFiles (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows various File Manager operations (file copy, etc.) through a collection of high-level routines.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
MoreFilesX (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Deprecated - Shows various File Manager operations through a collection of high-level routines using HFS Plus APIs.
Cocoa Sample Code 2005-05-13
Moriarity (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Implementing a Cocoa GUI that wraps command-line functionality, calling a UNIX task and presenting the results in a GUI.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
Mountains (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates localization and internationalization techniques and APIs
Cocoa Sample Code 2008-06-02
Movie Overlay (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to overlay text & graphics and perform animation on an QTMovieView through a floating overlay window.
Cocoa Sample Code 2008-07-25
MovieAudioExtraction - Ensure a Movie is fully loaded before starting an extraction session (HTML)
QA1469: Describes the importance of making sure a Movie is fully loaded before extracting audio.
Cocoa Technical Q&As 2006-03-29
Movies - Saving movie playback hints (HTML)
QA1366: Explains how to save and load media play hints from Movie files.
Cocoa Technical Q&As 2004-09-14
MP3 Player (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
How to wrap a command-line UNIX/Linux application in a Cocoa GUI, calling a the command-line app through NSTask.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
MungSaver (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates a simple Screen Saver module for Panther, using the Sequence Grabber DataProc mung technique.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-11-18
MyCustomColorPicker (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Shows how to write a custom color picker using Cocoa.
Cocoa Sample Code 2006-10-09
MyMovieFilter (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
How to play a movie into a layer-backed QTMovieView and apply a Core Image filter while the movie plays.
Cocoa Sample Code 2008-06-02
NameAndAddress (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
A single window utility that gets a host name from an IP address or an IP address from a hostname.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
NamingTableAccess (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Digs out the contents of the NamingTable in a TrueType 'sfnt'.
Cocoa Sample Code 2003-01-14
NewsReader (HTML) (DMG) (ZIP)
Demonstrates use of the Publication Subscription framework to create a simple RSS reader application.
Cocoa Sample Code 2007-06-01
Notification Programming Topics for Cocoa (HTML) (PDF)
Explains how to send and receive information about events in Cocoa programs.
Cocoa Guides 2007-05-03
NSAccessibility Protocol Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the interface for receiving accessibility-related messages.
Cocoa Reference 2007-12-11
NSActionCell Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the interface for the active area in a control.
Cocoa Reference 2007-02-28
NSAffineTransform Additions Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes additions to support affine transformations.
Cocoa Reference 2007-02-28
NSAffineTransform Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes an affine transformation from one coordinate space to another.
Cocoa Reference 2007-01-15
NSAlert Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a window that displays a message and obtains the user's response to it.
Cocoa Reference 2007-04-25
NSAnimatablePropertyContainer Protocol Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the interface for an animatable proxy for views and windows.
Cocoa Reference 2009-05-06
NSAnimation Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the behavior of an animation.
Cocoa Reference 2007-10-31
NSAnimationContext Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes nested transaction support for animating views.
Cocoa Reference 2008-02-08
NSAppleEventDescriptor Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class used to access the basic data structures in an Apple event.
Cocoa Reference 2007-04-10
NSAppleEventManager Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class used to work with Apple event handler routines and to suspend and resume event handling.
Cocoa Reference 2006-05-23
NSAppleScript Additions Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes additions to the NSAppleScript class to provide syntax-highlighted script source.
Cocoa Reference 2006-05-23
NSAppleScript Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class that provides the ability to load, compile, and execute scripts.
Cocoa Reference 2007-07-10
NSApplication Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the responder object that manages an application's events and resources.
Cocoa Reference 2009-02-04
NSArchiver Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a class that encodes objects into an architecture-independent format.
Cocoa Reference 2006-05-23
NSArray Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class used to manage an immutable ordered collection of objects.
Cocoa Reference 2008-06-09
NSArrayController Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a Cocoa bindings-compatible manager of an array or set.
Cocoa Reference 2007-04-09
NSAssertionHandler Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the facility for handling false assertions.
Cocoa Reference 2007-02-22
NSAtomicStore Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a Core Data atomic persistent store.
Cocoa Reference 2008-10-15
NSAtomicStoreCacheNode Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a node in an atomic persistent store.
Cocoa Reference 2006-10-09
NSATSTypesetter Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a typesetter that places glyphs for text layout.
Cocoa Reference 2009-03-04
NSAttributeDescription Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the class used to define attributes of an entity in a Core Data managed object model.
Cocoa Reference 2007-10-31
NSAttributedString Application Kit Additions Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes additions for analyzing and using attributed strings.
Cocoa Reference 2007-12-04
NSAttributedString Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes a character string with attributes.
Cocoa Reference 2008-10-15
NSAutoreleasePool Class Reference (HTML) (PDF)
Describes the interface to the deferred-release mechanism in Cocoa's reference-counted memory management system.
Cocoa Reference 2009-01-02