# jspahrsummers/libextobjc

A Cocoa library to extend the Objective-C programming language.

Repository: https://github.com/jspahrsummers/libextobjc
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libextobjc
Language: Objective-C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2019-04-23T07:16:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5659, "days_push": 2689, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4499, forks 460 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:51.457963+00:00)

## What it is
libextobjc is a modular Cocoa library that extends the Objective-C language with additional patterns and compile-time checks, such as safe categories, concrete protocols, weakify/strongify macros, and algebraic data types. It builds on the Objective-C runtime to bring features from other programming languages into Objective-C projects.

## Use cases
- add safe categories to Objective-C classes without overwriting existing methods
- provide default implementations for Objective-C protocols
- check key paths and selectors at compile time
- use weak variables safely inside blocks with @weakify and @strongify
- automatically clean up resources at scope exit with @onExit
- define algebraic data types at compile time in Objective-C
- reflect on object properties and inject methods via the Objective-C runtime

## When to choose
- you maintain a legacy Objective-C or Cocoa codebase and want safer, more expressive language features
- you need compile-time checking of key paths and selectors in Objective-C
- you want modular, low-dependency extensions to the Objective-C runtime

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new project in Swift, where most of these patterns are built in
- you need a library with active development and recent updates
- you need production support for the experimental branch features

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: programming-language, developer-tools, concurrency, error-handling
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages, operating-systems
- platform: cpp
- tags: objective-c, cocoa, macros, runtime, metaprogramming, macos, ios

## Member repositories
- jspahrsummers/libextobjc (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:51.457963+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:20:26.233943+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/jspahrsummers/libextobjc (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:51.457963+00:00, sha e8f68a0a1d75)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.