Overview

Introduction

ObjectiveScript is a powerful superset of JavaScript, which enables extensive interaction with C and Objective-C code.

Amongst the various features supported, a few highlights are

• Objective-C
  • First-class swizzling support similar to that of Logos
  • Method calling using Objective-C syntax
  • Creating new Objective-C classes
• C
  • Support for calling pure C functions, including variadic ones
  • Built-in interaction with C structures
  • Pointer support
• General
  • Powerful type inference and hinting system
  • Support for declaring and calling blocks

Motivation

At first glance, it might seem redundant to create a new programming language to interact with C and Objective-C; what's wrong with directly writing a program in Objective-C?

The primary motivation boils down to a simple fact: JavaScript can be interpreted at runtime.

This opens up a wide range of possibilities, such as

• Situations where bundling a full-fledged compiler would be too bulky or slow
• Avoiding the need for code-signing while executing code on systems where it's traditionally mandatory
• Dynamic code execution in cases where remapping pages as executable is disallowed

Example use cases include

• An app which allows users to build runtime modifications (tweaks) for other iOS apps without needing to jailbreak or use a computer
• An on-device IDE for coding native iOS apps
• A REPL for debugging apps at runtime in a syntax more familiar to developers than that of LLDB.

The initial motivation for building ObjectiveScript was the first of these examples, and you can download the preview version right now: Supercharge.