Grab ideas from, and link to related projects

[madsmtm]

Related projects to draw inspiration from:

• [x] fruity: https://github.com/nvzqz/fruity/issues/13
  • They have an ObjectType trait, which allows abstracting over the retain/release methods. I can see the appeal, but it fundamentally won't really work with our crate structure, and I think it's also more user-friendly if CoreFoundation-like types get their own rc::Id-like type.
  • They have a bit of safe bindings for CoreFoundation-like types, we could yet take some inspiration there.~ Moved to https://github.com/madsmtm/objc2/issues/556.
  • They add lifetimes to everything, even Object, which I've found to be overkill for almost all applications
  • Their objc module is similar to our runtime
  • ~Static NSNumbers and NSNull~ Written a note in our code about it,
  • The rest is either not relevant, or has been cherrypicked as fit
• [x] objc-rs (not on crates.io)
• [x] cacao
  • I believe I've grabbed the most important stuff by now, if not, then the full migration of that crate should highlight if objc2/icrate is lacking something.
• [x] objrs
  • There are some things that could be useful for making declare_class! static some day
  • Also for this, it is possible for fields to be Default, since they implement the special CXX constructor.
  • ~Perhaps use their exception.rs assembly code approach to allow handling exceptions without invoking clang~. I have written that as a doc comment on the try_catch method we're exposing in objc_sys.
• [x] cocoa/core-foundation/core-graphics
• [x] rustkit
  • This one actually surprised me by how good it is. Could perhaps have been a starting point for header-translator? But irrelevant now.
• [x] uikit-sys
• [ ] objr: https://github.com/drewcrawford/objr/issues/1
  • Different license, so muddy waters!
• [x] blocksr
  • I've looked through it, it doesn't have much we can use, except perhaps the async support, which I've moved to https://github.com/madsmtm/objc2/issues/279.
• [x] rust-macios: https://github.com/a-isaiahharvey/rust-macios/issues/63
• [x] apple-sys: https://github.com/youknowone/apple-sys/issues/9
• [x] objc-derive
• [x] swift-rs
• [x] Objective-Rust (blog post)
• [x] cidre. Moved to https://github.com/madsmtm/objc2/issues/557.

Related projects in other languages:

• Swift: Built-in @objc attribute
• Python: PyObjC (previously?) official Apple project which works with "BridgeSupport", they also generate metadata by invoking Clang, objp
• Go: MacDriver
• C#: Xamarin, Xamarin.Mac
• Ruby: MacRuby, RubyCocoa
• Dart: ffigen
• Java: Java-Objective-C-Bridge, Apple also has a very old official project
• Node.js: NodObjC, objc
• Zig: zig-objcrt
• Nim: somewhat built-in support, darwin, objc
• V: Not really existing, they just write and compile Objective-C code, and use manual C-bindings
• D: somewhat built-in support, derelict

Linking to other runtimes was done in #19

And other initiatives:

• Airyx
• Étoilé
• Darling

[madsmtm]

Also link to kotlin's support

[madsmtm]

Linking rubicon.objc, a Python module to interface with Objective-C and a bit of Foundation

[madsmtm]

I'm going to close this, the points are tracked elsewhere, except for the remaining objr, whose work I never got explicit permission to copy to this project under a different license.