Cocoa® Programming

Property Lists

Property lists enable convenient storage of application data without the need to write a lot of code or invent a new file format every time. Property lists are used extensively by Cocoa applications. User defaults and preferences are stored as property lists. Information such as the icon to use for a particular document type is stored in a property list. The Project Builder application uses property lists to store information about the project being built, such as which files to include in the build and which compiler options have been specified.

NOTE

Apple’s developer tools come with a PropertyListEditor application that helps users graphically edit a property list. The PropertyListEditor application can be used to edit any property ...