1. Sadly you ignored the example I posted completely.
2. Integrating by source code is valid for some use cases, but it is definitely not for all. E.g. low level libraries like crash reporters which can not be platform independent. Or libraries that rely on platform specifics, like UIKit on iOS.
There is not one approach, one way that fits all. For some libraries/frameworks are the best, for others direct source code inclusion is best.
The blog post contains lots of reasons, you might want to read it.
Here is only one example of why including via source code can be a bad thing:
> In the years past, for example, I saw issues related to a specific linker bug that resulted in improper relocation of Mach-O symbols during final linking of the executable, and crashes that thus only occurred in the specific user's application, and could only be reproduced with a specific set of linker input.
In addition: the writers frameworks/libraries are all (!!) open source! And you claim the only reason for using libraries is keeping the source secret. Yeah!
You might want to read the blog post again: CocoaPods does NOT solve the mentioned issues or provides the system that should be made available for developers as it exists on OS X.
Hey, I am Andreas, one of the developers of HockeyApp.net. The service provides some pretty unique features especially advanced crash report management. Crash Reporting is based on PLCrashReporter (see http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/code/objc/Reliable_Crash_Repor...), works also in the App Store with full server side symbolication grouping all crashes by class, method and line number.
Let me know if you have any questions.