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Zig Objective-C Generator (objective-zig-gen)

License

objective-zig-gen is a work-in-progress tool for generating Objective-C bindings from Zig. This project aims to streamline the process of integrating Objective-C code with Zig, providing developers with a seamless way to interact with Objective-C APIs from Zig projects. You can find generated bindings in objective-zig.

Goals

  • Objective-C Bindings Generation: Automatically generate Zig bindings for Objective-C code, enabling smooth integration between Zig and Objective-C.
  • Type Mapping: Handles basic type conversions between Zig and Objective-C.
  • Command Line Interface: Easy-to-use CLI for generating bindings directly from Objective-C header files.
  • Comptime Zig to Objective C ABI: Allow users to write Objective-C compatible Zig so there is no need to write any Objective-C.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Zig (0.13.0)
  • llvm installed through homebrew for libclang (We currently have a naive way to find libclang which is why homebrew is required)
  • A working Objective-C toolchain (Xcode on macOS)

Installation

Since this project is under active development, it's recommended to clone the repository and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/colbyhall/zigobjcgen.git
cd zigobjcgen
zig build

Usage

The program works off of a manifest file that list out xtool sdk frameworks, their dependencies, and other information for formatting the types.

objective-zig-gen <path/to/manifest.json>

Here is an example manifest file

[
    {
        "name": "Security",
        "output_file": "security"
    },
    {
        "name": "CoreFoundation",
        "output_file": "cf",

        "remove_prefix": "CF"
    },
    {
        "name": "CoreServices",
        "output_file": "cs",

        "dependencies": [
            "CoreFoundation"
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "Foundation",
        "output_file": "ns",

        "remove_prefix": "NS",
        "dependencies": [
            "CoreServices",
            "CoreFoundation",
            "Security"
        ]
    }
]

Roadmap

  • In Progress | Complete type mapping for all Objective-C types. (Protocols, Interfaces, Blocks)
  • Zig interface for writing Objective-C ABI compatible Zig.
  • Comprehensive test and benchmarking.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests if you want to help improve the project.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

  • Thanks to the Zig community for their ongoing support and inspiration
  • Inspiration for this project comes from the ened to bridge the gap between Zig and the Objective-C ecosystem.
  • Mach and mach-objc for giving me the initial inspiration, resources, and some runtime code bindings.

Note: This project is actively being developed and is not ready for production use. Expect frequent changes and updates.