Eliminate usingnamespace and runtime initialization #19
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The Objective-C class `Foo` has a symbol named `_OBJC_CLASS_$_Foo`. Storing a reference to it in a symbol named `_OBJC_CLASSLIST_REFERENCES_$_XXX` and then loading it through that symbol allows the linker to refer to the class directly instead of having to go through the Objective-C runtime. Ideally we could use volatile loads to load this symbol, but my testing shows Zig generates weird (incompatible, and possibly semantically incorrect) asm when loading a volatile pointer to an extern. So this uses inline assembly to force the load. This also adds a helper function named `as()`. It's a way to safely cast an Objective-C object pointer to a base class or a protocol it implements. If you try to cast to an unsupported protocol or incorrect base class it will result in a compile-time error.
We can use the `as()` helper method to use base functions. Some very common base functions (`release`, `retain`, and `autorelease`) are imported into every class/protocol. We can expand this list as needed to include convenient inherited methods. We could include all inherited methods if that ends up being preferable.
We don't really need @cImport. And dual namespacing (e.g., foundation.ns or quartz_core.ca) just increases verbosity.
emidoots
approved these changes
Aug 21, 2024
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The commit messages explain things. I'm happy to elaborate further.