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Mac OS X Version 10.5 Delta

The low-level Objective-C runtime API is significantly updated in Mac OS X version 10.5. Many functions and all existing data structures are replaced with new functions. This document describes the differences between the 10.5 version and previous versions.

Runtime Functions

Basic types

arith_t: Changed from int to intptr_t.

uarith_t: Changed from unsigned to uintptr_t.

Instances

The following functions are unchanged:

• object_dispose

• object_getClassName

• object_getIndexedIvars

• object_setInstanceVariable

• object_getInstanceVariable

The following function is modified:

• object_copy (The nBytes parameter is changed from unsigned to size_t.)

The following functions are added:

• object_getClass

• object_setClass

• object_getIvar

• object_setIvar

The following functions are deprecated:

• object_copyFromZone: deprecated in favor of object_copy

• object_realloc

• object_reallocFromZone: no substitute

• _alloc: no substitute

• _copy: no substitute

• _realloc: no substitute

• _dealloc: no substitute

• _zoneAlloc: no substitute

• _zoneRealloc: no substitute

• _zoneCopy: no substitute

• _error: no substitute

Class Inspection

The following functions are unchanged:

• objc_getClassList

• objc_lookUpClass

• objc_getClass

• objc_getMetaClass

• class_getVersion

• class_getInstanceVariable

• class_getInstanceMethod

• class_getClassMethod

The following function is modified:

• class_createInstance: idxIvars parameter Changed from unsigned to size_t

The following functions are added:

• class_getName

• class_getSuperclass

• class_isMetaClass

• class_copyMethodList

• class_getMethodImplementation

• class_getMethodImplementation_stret

• class_respondsToSelector

• class_conformsToProtocol

• class_copyProtocolList

• class_copyIvarList

The following functions are deprecated:

• objc_getClasses: deprecated in favor of objc_getClassList

• class_createInstanceFromZone: deprecated in favor of class_createInstance

• class_nextMethodList: deprecated in favor of new class_copyMethodList

• class_lookupMethod: deprecated in favor of class_getMethodImplementation

• class_respondsToMethod: deprecated in favor of class_respondsToSelector

The following function is used only by ZeroLink:

• objc_getRequiredClass

Class Manipulation

The following function is unchanged:

• class_setVersion

The following functions are added:

• objc_allocateClassPair

• objc_registerClassPair

• objc_duplicateClass

• class_addMethod

• class_addIvar

• class_addProtocol

The following functions are deprecated:

• objc_addClass: deprecated in favor of objc_allocateClassPair and objc_registerClassPair

• class_addMethods: deprecated in favor of new class_addMethod

• class_removeMethods: deprecated with no substitute

• class_poseAs: deprecated in favor of categories and method_setImplementation

Methods

The following function is unchanged:

• method_getNumberOfArguments

The following functions are added:

• method_getName

• method_getImplementation

• method_getTypeEncoding

• method_copyReturnType

• method_copyArgumentType

• method_setImplementation

The following functions are deprecated:

• method_getArgumentInfo

• method_getSizeOfArguments

Instance Variables

The following functions are added:

• ivar_getName

• ivar_getTypeEncoding

• ivar_getOffset

Selectors

The following functions are unchanged:

• sel_getName

• sel_registerName

• sel_getUid

The following function is added:

• sel_isEqual

The following function is deprecated:

• sel_isMapped: deprecated with no substitute

Runtime

The following functions are deprecated favor of dyld:

• objc_loadModules

• objc_loadModule

• objc_unloadModules

The following functions are deprecated:

• objc_setClassHandler: deprecated with no substitute

• objc_setMultithreaded: deprecated with no substitute

The following previously undocumented functions are deprecated with no substitute:

• objc_getOrigClass

• _objc_create_zone

• _objc_error

• _objc_flush_caches

• _objc_resolve_categories_for_class

• _objc_setClassLoader

• _objc_setNilReceiver

• _objc_getNilReceiver

• _objcInit

The following undocumented functions are unchanged:

• _objc_getFreedObjectClass

• instrumentObjcMessageSends

• _objc_debug_class_hash

• _class_printDuplicateCacheEntries

• _class_printMethodCaches

• _class_printMethodCacheStatistics

Messaging

The following functions are unchanged:

• objc_msgSend

• objc_msgSend_stret

• objc_msgSendSuper

• objc_msgSendSuper_stret

• objc_msgSendSuper_stret

The following functions are removed:

Protocols

The following functions are added:

• objc_getProtocol

• objc_copyProtocolList

Exceptions

The following functions are unchanged:

• objc_exception_throw

• objc_exception_try_enter

• objc_exception_try_exit

• objc_exception_extract

• objc_exception_match

• objc_exception_get_functions

• objc_exception_set_functions

Synchronization

The following functions are unchanged:

• objc_sync_enter

• objc_sync_exit

• objc_sync_wait

• objc_sync_notify

• objc_sync_notifyAll

These functions are only used by the compiler.

NXHashTable and NXMapTable

NXHashTable and NXMapTable are unchanged. They are limited to 4 billion entries.

Structures

The objc_super struct is unchanged:

struct objc_super {

    id receiver;

    Class super_class;

};

All other structures deprecated in favor of opaque types and functional API. Substitutes are shown in the following tables.

There are no substitutes for the following structs:

• objc_object {...};

• objc_category {...};

• objc_method_list {...};

• objc_ivar_list {...};

• objc_protocol_list {...};

• objc_cache {...};

• objc_module {...};

• objc_symtab {...};

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