If we want to provide options for the platform, it's probably best to make Platform an object.

We can probably also use this new platform object in the future to refactor out platform-specific
logic.

lib/cocoapods.rb

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ module Pod
   autoload :Downloader,             'cocoapods/downloader'
   autoload :Executable,             'cocoapods/executable'
   autoload :Installer,              'cocoapods/installer'
+  autoload :Platform,               'cocoapods/platform'
   autoload :Podfile,                'cocoapods/podfile'
   autoload :Resolver,               'cocoapods/resolver'
   autoload :Source,                 'cocoapods/source'

lib/cocoapods/platform.rb

+module Pod
+  class Platform
+    attr_reader :options
+    
+    def initialize(symbolic_name, options = {})
+      @symbolic_name = symbolic_name
+      @options = options
+    end
+    
+    def name
+      @symbolic_name
+    end
+    
+    def ==(other_platform_or_symbolic_name)
+      if other_platform_or_symbolic_name.is_a?(Symbol)
+        @symbolic_name == other_platform_or_symbolic_name
+      else
+        self == (other_platform_or_symbolic_name.name)
+      end
+    end
+    
+    def to_s
+      name.to_s
+    end
+    
+    def to_sym
+      name
+    end
+    
+    def nil?
+      name.nil?
+    end
+  end
+end

lib/cocoapods/podfile.rb

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ module Pod
     # This can be either `:osx` for Mac OS X applications, or `:ios` for iOS
     # applications.
     def platform(platform = nil)
-      platform ? @platform = platform : @platform
+      platform ? @platform = Platform.new(platform) : @platform
     end
 
     # Specifies a dependency of the project.
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ module Pod
 
     def validate!
       lines = []
-      lines << "* the `platform` attribute should be either `:osx` or `:ios`" unless [:osx, :ios].include?(@platform)
+      lines << "* the `platform` attribute should be either `:osx` or `:ios`" unless @platform && [:osx, :ios].include?(@platform.name)
       lines << "* no dependencies were specified, which is, well, kinda pointless" if dependencies.empty?
       raise(Informative, (["The Podfile at `#{@defined_in_file}' is invalid:"] + lines).join("\n")) unless lines.empty?
     end

lib/cocoapods/specification.rb

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ module Pod
     # TODO This is just to work around a MacRuby bug
     def post_initialize
       @dependencies, @source_files, @resources, @clean_paths, @subspecs = [], [], [], [], []
+      @platform = Platform.new(nil)
       @xcconfig = Xcodeproj::Config.new
     end
 
@@ -123,7 +124,10 @@ module Pod
       flags
     end
 
-    attr_accessor :platform
+    def platform=(platform)
+      @platform = Platform.new(platform)
+    end
+    attr_reader :platform
 
     attr_accessor :requires_arc
 
@@ -321,7 +325,7 @@ module Pod
 
       incorrect = []
       allowed = [nil, :ios, :osx]
-      incorrect << ["`platform'", allowed] unless allowed.include?(platform)
+      incorrect << ["`platform'", allowed] unless allowed.include?(platform.name)
 
       unless missing.empty? && incorrect.empty?
         message = "The following #{(missing + incorrect).size == 1 ? 'attribute is' : 'attributes are'}:\n"

lib/cocoapods/xcodeproj_ext.rb

@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ module Xcodeproj
     }
 
     def self.build_settings(platform, scheme)
-      settings = COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[:all].merge(COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[platform])
+      settings = COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[:all].merge(COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[platform.name])
       settings['COPY_PHASE_STRIP'] = scheme == :debug ? 'NO' : 'YES'
       if scheme == :debug
         settings.merge!(COMMON_BUILD_SETTINGS[:debug])

spec/unit/platform_spec.rb

+require File.expand_path('../../spec_helper', __FILE__)
+
+describe "Pod::Platform" do
+  before do
+    @platform = Pod::Platform.new(:ios)
+  end
+  
+  it "exposes it's symbolic name" do
+    @platform.name.should == :ios
+  end
+  
+  it "can be compared for equality with another platform with the same symbolic name" do
+    @platform.should == Pod::Platform.new(:ios)
+  end
+  
+  it "can be compared for equality with a matching symbolic name (backwards compatibility reasons)" do
+    @platform.should == :ios
+  end
+  
+  it "uses it's name as it's string version" do
+    @platform.to_s.should == "ios"
+  end
+  
+  it "uses it's name as it's symbold version" do
+    @platform.to_sym.should == :ios
+  end
+end
+
+describe "Pod::Platform with a nil value" do
+  before do
+    @platform = Pod::Platform.new(nil)
+  end
+  
+  it "behaves like a nil object" do
+    @platform.should.be.nil
+  end
+end

spec/unit/xcodeproj_ext_spec.rb

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ describe 'Xcodeproj::Project' do
   
   describe "for the :ios platform" do
     before do
-      @project = Xcodeproj::Project.for_platform(:ios)
+      @project = Xcodeproj::Project.for_platform(Pod::Platform.new(:ios))
     end
     
     behaves_like "for any platform"