Using c/c++ library that uses network for iphone app objective c

Question

I am currently evaluating if a c/c++ library may be used for a specific iPhone project of mine. The original library makes heavy use of windows specific code (for example it includes windows.h and winsock.h). I am aware that I will have to rewrite the parts that use windows specific code and replace winsocks with for example bsd sockets. Or try to convert to objective-c++ and use IOS specific networking apis as it's recommended in Apple's documentation.

But as it turns out in Apple's documentation, in iOS only C and Objective-C code is allowed for networking. "iOS supports networking code written in C and Objective-C." ( https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_Networking_iPhone/ )

That sounds like I have to rewrite the whole library in objective-c to make it work on IOS. Or would it be sufficient to programm a wrapper class in objective-c and work with the original (adapted to bsd sockets api or objective-c++) library? -> Using C/C++ static libraries from iPhone ObjectiveC Apps

But the actual networking code still would be written c/c++ not objective-c.

Is there any chance this might work? I don't want to do all the work of adapting the library and then notice that this approach does not work.

Has anyone tried something similiar before?

Best regards, Mike

Answer 1

You should be able to rewrite portions of your C++ library to used BSD sockets instead of the Windows sockets API without any problems.

Apple does not forbid C++ code from accessing the network, however the only networking APIs offered by iOS are in either C (BSD sockets, CoreFundation) or Objective-C (Foundation…), perhaps that's the source of your confusion. You can freely mix C, C++ and Objective-C code in your own code or in statically linked libraries.