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https://github.com/alibaba/wax

Wax is a framework that lets you write native iPhone apps in Lua.
https://github.com/alibaba/wax

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Wax is a framework that lets you write native iPhone apps in Lua.

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README 

        
Wax is being maintained by Alibaba

----------



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Thanks to @probablycorey for creating such a great project.

Wax is the best bridge between Lua and Objective-C, we will be maintaining it here. We have fixed a lot of issues such as 64-bit support and thread-safety. We have also added many features such as converting Lua functions to OC blocks, calling OC blocks in Lua, getting/setting private ivars, built-in commonly used C functions, and even Lua code debugging.



Wax

---



Wax is a framework that lets you write native iPhone apps in 

[Lua](http://www.lua.org/about.html). It bridges Objective-C and Lua using the 

Objective-C runtime. With Wax, **anything** you can do in Objective-C is **automatically**

available in Lua! What are you waiting for, give it a shot!



Why write iPhone apps in Lua?

-----------------------------



I love writing iPhone apps, but would rather write them in a dynamic language than in Objective-C. Here 

are some reasons why many people prefer Lua + Wax over Objective-C...



* Automatic Garbage Collection! Gone are the days of alloc, retain, and release.



* Less Code! No more header files, no more static types, array and dictionary literals! 

  Lua enables you to get more power out of less lines of code.



* Access to every Cocoa, UITouch, Foundation, etc.. framework, if it's written in Objective-C, 

  Wax exposes it to Lua automatically. All the frameworks you love are all available to you!



* Super easy HTTP requests. Interacting with a REST webservice has never been eaiser



* Lua has closures, also known as blocks! Anyone who has used these before knows how powerful they can be.



* Lua has a build in Regex-like pattern matching library.



Examples

--------



For some simple Wax apps, check out the [examples folder](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/tree/master/examples).



How would I create a UIView and color it red?



``` lua

-- forget about using alloc! Memory is automatically managed by Wax

view = UIView:initWithFrame(CGRect(0, 0, 320, 100))



-- use a colon when sending a message to an Objective-C Object

-- all methods available to a UIView object can be accessed this way

view:setBackgroundColor(UIColor:redColor())

```



What about methods with multiple arguments?



``` lua

-- Just add underscores to the method name, then write the arguments like

-- you would in a regular C function

UIApplication:sharedApplication():setStatusBarHidden_animated(true, false)

```



How do I send an array/string/dictionary



``` lua

-- Wax automatically converts array/string/dictionary objects to NSArray,

-- NSString and NSDictionary objects (and vice-versa)

images = {"myFace.png", "yourFace.png", "theirFace.png"}

imageView = UIImageView:initWithFrame(CGRect(0, 0, 320, 460))

imageView:setAnimationImages(images)

```



What if I want to create a custom UIViewController?



``` lua

-- Created in "MyController.lua"

--

-- Creates an Objective-C class called MyController with UIViewController

-- as the parent. This is a real Objective-C object, you could even

-- reference it from Objective-C code if you wanted to.

waxClass{"MyController", UIViewController}



function init()

  -- to call a method on super, simply use self.super

  self.super:initWithNibName_bundle("MyControllerView.xib", nil)

  return self

end



function viewDidLoad()

  -- Do all your other stuff here

end

```



You said HTTP calls were easy, I don't believe you...



``` lua

url = "http://search.twitter.com/trends/current.json"



-- Makes an asyncronous call, the callback function is called when a

-- response is received

wax.http.request{url, callback = function(body, response)

  -- request is just a NSHTTPURLResponse

  puts(response:statusCode())



  -- Since the content-type is json, Wax automatically parses it and places

  -- it into a Lua table

  puts(body)

end}

```



Since Wax converts NSString, NSArray, NSDictionary and NSNumber to native Lua values, you have to force objects back to Objective-C sometimes. Here is an example.



``` lua

local testString = "Hello lua!"

local bigFont = UIFont:boldSystemFontOfSize(30)

local size = toobjc(testString):sizeWithFont(bigFont)

puts(size)

```

    

How do I convert Lua functions to Objective-C blocks? [see more detail](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/Block).



``` lua

UIView:animateWithDuration_animations_completion(1, 

    toblock(

        function()

            label:setCenter(CGPoint(300, 300))

        end

    ),

    toblock(

             function(finished)

                print('lua animations completion ' .. tostring(finished))

            end

    ,{"void", "BOOL"})

)



---OC method is -(void)testReturnIdWithFirstIdBlock:(id(^)(id aFirstId, BOOL aBOOL, int aInt, NSInteger aInteger, float aFloat, CGFloat aCGFloat, id aId))block

self:testReturnIdWithFirstIdBlock(

toblock(

    function(aFirstId, aBOOL, aInt, aInteger, aFloat, aCGFloat, aId)

        print("aFirstId=" .. tostring(aFirstId))

        -- assert(aFirstId == self, "aFirstInt不等")

        assertResult(self, aBOOL, aInt, aInteger, aFloat, aCGFloat, aId)

        print("LUA TEST SUCCESS: testReturnIdWithFirstIdBlock")

        return aFirstId

    end

    , {"id","id", "BOOL", "int", "NSInteger", "float", "CGFloat", "id"})

)

```



What about calling Objective-C blocks?[see more detail](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/Block).



``` lua

--OC block type is id (^)(NSInteger, id, BOOL, CGFloat)

--just like lua function

local res = block(123456, aObject, true, 123.456);



--or you can call like this:

local res = luaCallBlockWithParamsTypeArray(block, {"id","NSInteger", "id", "BOOL", "CGFloat"},  123456, aObject, true, 123.456);

```



What if my instance variables are privately implemented?



``` lua

print(self:view():getIvarInt("_countOfMotionEffectsInSubtree"))



self:setIvar_withObject("_title", "abcdefg")

print(self:getIvarObject("_title"))



self:setIvar_withObject("_infoDict", {k11="v11", k22="v22"})

print(toobjc(self:getIvarObject("_infoDict")))

```



You want to call some C functions?



``` lua

luaSetWaxConfig({openBindOCFunction=true})--bind built-in C function



dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), 

        toblock(

            function( )

                print(string.format("dispatch_async"));

            end)

    );



UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(CGSize(200,400));

UIApplication:sharedApplication():keyWindow():layer():renderInContext(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext());

local aImage =UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

UIGraphicsEndImageContext();



local imageData =UIImagePNGRepresentation(aImage);

print("imageData.length=", imageData.length);

local image = aImage;

local data = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 0.8);

print("data.length=", data:length());

```



Lua code debug

------

Any way to debug my Lua code?   

Ofcourse, you can use the powerfull ZeroBraneStudio to debug. [see more detail](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/tree/master/examples/LuaCodeDebug).



Lua code in Xcode

------

[Wax-In-Xcode](https://github.com/intheway/Wax-In-Xcode) plugin can help you for Lua code format, syntax highlighting and code completion.   



Watch OS 

------

Can Wax run on watch OS?

Thanks to the cross platform characteristics of Lua, Wax can run on watch OS certainly. see tools/WaxWatchFramework and examples/WaxWatchExample



Swift

------

Can Wax work in Swift?

Swift has no runtime feature, but it's compatible with Objective-c, so runtime method invoking and swizzing can be used in some conditions. [see more detail](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/UseInSwift).



```

waxClass{"SwiftExample.TestSwiftVC"}

function viewDidLoad(self)

	self:ORIGviewDidLoad();

	--call class method

	objc_getClass("SwiftExample.TestSwiftVC"):testClassReturnVoidWithaId(self:view())

end

function tableView_didSelectRowAtIndexPath(self, tableView, indexPath)

	local vc = objc_getClass("SwiftExample.TestBSwiftVC"):initWithNibName_bundle("TestBSwiftVC", nil);

    self:navigationController():pushViewController_animated(vc, true);

end

```



Use with cocoapods

----------

see demo in `examples/InstallationExample/InstallWithCocoaPods` .  

* add `pod 'wax', :git=>'https://github.com/alibaba/wax.git', :tag=>'1.1.0'` to your podfile. (tag in your needs)  

* then you can run lua code.



``` lua

wax_start(nil, nil);

wax_runLuaString("print('hello wax')");

```

    

Setup & Tutorials

-----------------



[Setting up Wax](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/Installation)



[How does Wax work?](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/Overview)



[Simple Twitter client in Wax](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/wiki/Twitter-example)



Which API's are included?

-------------------------



They all are! I can't stress this enough, anything that is written in Objective-C (even external frameworks) will work automatically in Wax! UIAcceleration works like UIAcceleration, MapKit works like MapKit, GameKit works like GameKit, Snozberries taste like Snozberries!



Created By

----------

Corey Johnson (probablycorey at gmail dot com)



More

----

* [Feature Requests? Bugs?](https://github.com/alibaba/wax/issues) - Issue tracking and release planning.

* [Mailing List](http://groups.google.com/group/iphonewax)

* Quick questions or issues? Send an email to [@Zhengwei Yin (Junzhan)](mailto:[email protected])

* Communicate in gitter: [https://gitter.im/alibaba/wax](https://gitter.im/alibaba/wax)

* Communicate in QQ group: 196306834



Contribute

----------

[@Zhengwei Yin (Junzhan)](mailto:[email protected])  

Fork it, change it, commit it, push it, send pull request; instant glory!



The MIT License

---------------

Wax is Copyright (C) 2009 Corey Johnson See the file LICENSE for information of licensing and distribution.