Haxelib vs J2ObjC

Haxelib is the library manager included with Haxe distributions. It connects to a central repository for finding, installing, and sharing Haxe libraries on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with API access. The command line installs the latest release or a specified version, resolves dependencies from HXML files, and supports offline installation. Search matches project names or descriptions, while the info command displays ownership, licensing, descriptions, websites, tags, versions, and release notes. Developers can submit ZIP archives or directories, use Git or Mercurial repositories, and create local repositories from project files. Installed libraries can be exposed to the Haxe compiler with --library or -L. Haxelib can use an HTTP proxy or a custom server. Libraries are distributed as source by default. The public HaxeFoundation repository is MIT licensed, and community links include GitHub, bug reports, Stack Overflow, forums, Discord, and Gitter. All libraries are free.

J2ObjC is Google’s free, open-source command-line tool for translating Java source code into Objective-C for iOS. It is designed for sharing non-UI application logic and data models across web, Android, and iOS projects. Supported Java features include exceptions, inner and anonymous classes, generics, threads, and reflection, and the tool can translate and execute JUnit tests. The distribution contains static libraries for Guava, JUnit, Mockito, Protocol Buffers, and other Java or Android utility libraries. J2ObjC does not provide a platform-independent UI toolkit; iOS interfaces use Objective-C, Objective-C++, or Swift with Apple’s iOS SDK. Developers need source code they own or are licensed to use because Android binaries cannot be converted. Requirements include a Mac workstation, macOS 15 or higher, Xcode 16 or higher, and JDK 21 or higher. The j2objcc script wraps clang and uses the iOS SDK, while Xcode projects need J2ObjC linker settings. Objective-C reference counting leaves memory management to developers.