ObjectiveC.jl

Pkg.clone("ObjectiveC")

ObjectiveC.jl is an Objective-C bridge for Julia. The library allows you to call Objective-C methods using native syntax:

using ObjectiveC

@objc [NSString new]

This makes it easy to wrap Objective-C APIs from Julia.

using ObjectiveC

@classes NSSound

function play(name::String)
  @objc begin
    sound = [NSSound soundNamed:name]
    if [sound isPlaying] |> bool
      [sound stop]
    end
    [sound play]
  end
end

play("Purr")

ObjectiveC.jl also supports defining classes, using a variant of Objective-C syntax (which eschews the interface/implementation distinction):

@class type Foo
  @- (Cdouble) multiply:(Cdouble)x by:(Cdouble)y begin
    x*y # Note that this is Julia code
  end
end

@objc [[Foo new] multiply:5 by:3]
#> 15

You can leave out the type to default to Object. So long as you don't change the type of the method, you're able to redefine it on the fly – even if you've already created instances of the class and used them as delegates.

using Cocoa

The library provides some basic wrappers for the Cocoa framework for creating GUIs. Despite having generally nice APIs Objective-C is ridiculously verbose, so it's handy to have Julia wrappers for most functionality.

using ObjectiveC, Cocoa
Cocoa.init()
win = window()

This will pop up a window with the title "Julia". Now let's try something more interesting:

for α = linspace(0,π,50)
  @objc [win setAlphaValue:cos(α)^2]
  sleep(1/100)
end

You should see the window fade in and out again.

If you're using Juno, I encourage you to try uncommenting this line and pressing C-Enter to evaluate the class definition (after opening a window as above). You'll notice that the class is actually redefined on-the-fly, and you'll hear a popping sound as the tick method is called (and you can do the reverse to stop the sound, of course).

Current Limitations

• Julia's FFI doesn't have great support for structs yet, so neither does ObjectiveC.jl. Luckily structs aren't too common in Objective-C APIs, and where they are used it's not too difficult to add wrappers (see cocoa.m)
• Objective-C calls made from Julia are not as fast as they could be. This is fine for most GUI-related purposes, since most calls will be callbacks made by the Objective-C runtime, but may not be suitable for use with high-performance scientific computing libraries written in Objective-C.
• Instance variables are not yet supported on classes.
• Probably other things I haven't thought of; ObjectiveC.jl has not been used for any remotely large projects yet so proceed with caution.