Discoveries Reading Dias State

Part of Discoveries.

Swift fields

Most of Dia is Swift. -safeSwiftValueForKey: (from AXCoreUtilities, loaded in every AppKit app) reads a Swift property by name, such as spaceID, itemViews or isSelected.

Swift collections come back as __SwiftValue

Dictionaries usually bridge, but arrays often don't. Calling count or other NSArray methods on one crashes Dia. Parse its description instead, for example with a UUID regex.

Dictionaries keyed by a Swift struct

Keys such as SpaceID describe themselves as the ID, so [key description] gives you a string to compare.

Lazy properties

They're stored as $__lazy_storage_$_name, for example the profile dot $__lazy_storage_$_dotView.

Setting Swift properties

class_getInstanceVariable finds a Swift class's stored properties by name. An object one, like the command bar's font, can be assigned through a __strong pointer at its address, which ARC retains and releases as usual.