A portable Objective-C runtime written in C11. No Assembler required. It follows the Apple "Objective-C 1 Runtime" and adds many features from "Objective-C 2.0", but the function calls are completely different. It is designed to be suitable for massive multi-threading.
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| Mulle kybernetiK |  |
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Runtime objects (like classes and selectors) are not referenced by name, but by a unique ID. No special linker action required.
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Parameters outside of
selfand_cmdare passed via_param, a single pointer to a struct. This simplifies a lot of code, especially forwarding code. Return values are also returned with the same struct. Optimizations are done for simple methods with only none or one parameter and none or one return value. -
It uses inlineable method calls for superior performance. The user can specify "fast" classes and "fast" methods for extra speed in performance critical cases.
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retain/releasesemantics are built in. These are non-overridable, which makes them a lot faster. -
isais not part of the instance, but instead prefixed to the instance. -
Protocolas a type and an object does not exist anymore. -
No global lock. The runtime only locks during
+initializeon a per class basis -
Protections against the fragile base class problem
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Multiple runtimes can coexist.
If you haven't used an Objective-C runtime before, it is useful to get to know the much better documented "Mac OS X Objective-C 1.0" runtime first. Intro to the Objective-C Runtime could be a good starting point.
| API | Description |
|---|---|
_mulle_objc_class |
Deal with Classes |
_mulle_objc_ivar et al. |
Instance variables |
_mulle_objc_loadinfo |
Install Classes, Categories, Methods, Strings into the runtime |
_mulle_objc_method et al. |
Deal with Methods |
_mulle_objc_object et al. |
Deal with Instances |
_mulle_objc_property et al. |
Handle Properties |
_mulle_objc_runtime |
Work with the runtime |
| API | Description |
|---|---|
| Global Functions | Global functions and conveniences |
| Exceptions | Raising exceptions |
| Vararg extensions | Dealing with variable arguments |
These articles give you some background about the mulle-objc runtime:
- mulle-objc: a new Objective-C runtime
- mulle-objc: a meta calling convention
- mulle-objc: removing superflous ifs
- mulle-objc: inlined messaging
- mulle-objc: some research about selectors
- mulle-objc: hashes for classes, selectors and protocols
- mulle_objc: object layout, retain counting, finalize
- mulle_objc: inheriting methods from protocols
- mulle_objc: present and absent language features
- mulle_objc: the trouble with @property
- mulle_objc: ivar layout with @property
- mulle_objc: technically speaking
- mulle-clang, technically speaking
- mulle-objc-runtime, technically speaking
- MulleFoundation, technically speaking
If something is unclear, feel free to contact the author.
On OS X and Linux you can use homebrew, respectively linuxbrew to install the library:
brew install mulle-objc/software/mulle-objc-runtime
On other platforms you can use mulle-install from mulle-build to install the library:
mulle-install --prefix /usr/local --branch release https://github.com/mulle-objc/mulle-objc-runtime
Otherwise read:
All platforms and compilers supported by mulle-c11 and mulle-thread.
Nat! for Mulle kybernetiK and Codeon GmbH