the XIB file format is undocumented and non-standard

Originator:mayer.julian
Number:rdar://10404944 Date Originated:07-Nov-2011 12:50 PM
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:Mac OS X SDK Product Version:any
Classification:Other Bug Reproducible:always
 
this is a request for the XIB file format to get documented - it is currently undocumented and changes without warning with new Xcode and/or Mac OS X versions.

there are many reasons to be able to reliably parse the XIB file format:
 • using XIB files for deploying mac apps to windows/linux (gnustep / cocotron)
 • developing advanced mac development tools for e.g. localization, testing, ...

the XIB file format also violates some of the standards it uses, e.g. it uses base64 strings which do not exceed the minimum length.

Comments

Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please know that we have taken the liberty of forwarding this to the appropriate Apple team for further investigation and have provided them with your contact information, in case they need to contact you for further information.

In the future, for feedback on various Apple products, please feel free to submit your feedback directly by pointing your browser to:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

We consider this issue closed. If you have any questions or concern regarding this issue, please update your report directly (http://bugreport.apple.com).

Thank you for taking the time to notify us of this issue.

Best Regards,

Developer Bug Reporting Team

By mayer.julian at Nov. 29, 2011, 8:56 p.m. (reply...)

Please note: Reports posted here will not necessarily be seen by Apple. All problems should be submitted at bugreport.apple.com before they are posted here. Please only post information for Radars that you have filed yourself, and please do not include Apple confidential information in your posts. Thank you!