Search code examples
macosmacos-carbon

What does "Non-Carbon CFM" mean?

In a number of API calls, the header file says:

Mac OS X:         in version 10.0 and later in Carbon.framework
CarbonLib:        in CarbonLib 1.1 and later
Non-Carbon CFM:   not available

What do "CarbonLib" and "Non-Carbon CFM" mean? Does that mean I can use this function, or not?

Solution

  • Since you're developing for Mac OS X (a.k.a. OS X, a.k.a. macOS), you should refer to the first line. The other two lines are not relevant for you or, really, these days, anybody.

    So, yes, you can use the function, assuming there's nothing else in the header indicating you can't or shouldn't (like not being available for 64-bit or being deprecated).

    CarbonLib and Non-Carbon CFM were relevant for classic Mac OS. The "CFM" in Non-Carbon CFM refers to the Code Fragment Manager, which is basically a dynamic loader. The modern analog would be dyld.