I have a 64-bit-only application that I am developing in Objective-C on Cocoa. It includes various plugins that are also 64-bit. One of these plugins needs to use a 3rd party Framework that is only built for 32-bit i386. It is a C-based framework. It is not possible for the 3rd party to produce a 64-bit version at this time.
I do not want to change my entire application and plugin suite to be 32-bit just to accommodate this one 32-bit framework, but I also do not have any alternatives since it provides access to a proprietary piece of hardware and is the only means my application (via the plugin) will have to operate the device.
What are my options for making this all work?
Clearly my plugin needs to be 64-bit, otherwise the main application will not load it. However, In that case I cannot link against the 32-bit external Framework. I have read that I may need a 32-bit helper application that the plugins communicates with, but have no idea if that is a good or recommended approach.
Are there any other ways to do this? If not, can someone point me to any documentation or tutorials on making this work?
An option would be to create a standalone 32-bit application that uses the framework and controls the device. Then have a 64-bit plugin to your app that launches the standalone app and communicates with it through some IPC mechanism.