---
title: Introduction to Core Foundation Design Concepts
framework: corefoundation
role: article
path: apple-archive/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFDesignConcepts
---

# Introduction to Core Foundation Design Concepts

Explains the fundamental design concepts that underlie all Core Foundation programming interfaces.

## Organization of This Document

These concepts and tasks discuss the object model used in Core Foundation:

- [Opaque Types](Articles/OpaqueTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001106-CJBEJBHH) - [Object References](Articles/ObjectReferences.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001107-CJBEJBHH) - [Polymorphic Functions](Articles/PolymorphicFunctions.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001108-CJBEJBHH) - [Varieties of Objects](Articles/VarietyOfObjects.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001109-CJBEJBHH) - [Comparing Objects](Articles/Comparing.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001112-CJBEHAAG) - [Inspecting Objects](Articles/Inspecting.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001113-CJBEHAAG)

In addition, there are other non-object types, and API conventions that you should be familiar with before using Core Foundation:

- [Naming Conventions](Articles/NamingConventions.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001110-CJBEJBHH) - [Other Types](Articles/OtherTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20001111-CJBEJBHH) - [Toll-Free Bridged Types](Articles/tollFreeBridgedTypes.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010677-SW1)

[Next](Articles/OpaqueTypes.html)

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