Preference panes are used primarily to modify system preferences for the current user. Preference
panes are implemented as plug-ins and installed in /Library/PreferencePanes on the user’s
system. Application developers can also take advantage of these plug-ins to manage per-user
application preferences; however, most applications manage preferences using the code provided
by the application environment.
The following types of developers might need to create preference panes:
■ Developers of hardware devices that are user-configurable
■ Developers of systemwide utilities, such as virus protection programs, that require user
configuration
■ Application developers who want to reuse preference panes intended for the System
Preferences application or who simply want to use the same model to implement their
application preferences
Because the interfaces are based on Objective-C, you write preference panes primarily using
Cocoa. For more information, see Preference Panes in Cocoa User Experience Documentation.
