Why does the GLKView have context properties in interface builder?

Question

If I create a GLKView in interface builder I see several configurable properties related to the gl context (such as color format). Why do these properties exist if I have to create a context manually?

Answer 1

Colour format, whether or not there's a depth buffer, etc, are properties of a frame buffer, not of a context. Compared to desktop OpenGL, ES has had the functionality of the frame buffer extension from day one so there's no conflation of the two unrelated things.