Objective-C Name Conflicts

Prerequisite Checklist

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Describe your issue here

Objective-C has a flat namespace and runtime symbols for class names. This means that within a process, no two Objective-C classes can share a name (see official Apple guidance on this).

In the context of a process which might be using several libraries, which might separately use SFML, we end up with a conflict between e.g. two versions of SFWindow. The Objective-C runtime will use the first one that loads.

This isn’t just a theoretical issue. I am developing a new AU/VST3 plugin for my company. Our previous plugin uses SFML, and the one I am working on now also uses SFML. It is possible for the versions of SFML to diverge between the two plugins — and this is not to mention the possibility that any of the thousands of other plugins available might also be using SFML. If SFML is compiled with all the Objective-C classes named as they currently are, then the first plugin loaded will control which SFWindow is used by all other plugins. One plugin could end up interfacing with a version of SFWindow that it wasn’t built with — which could easily break it.

I have prepared a PR (https://github.com/SFML/SFML/pull/3719) with my idea of a solution to this problem, but open to thoughts.

Your Environment

• MacOS 26.2
• SFML version: 3.2.0 dev
• Apple Clang (Xcode)

Steps to reproduce

It's beyond the scope of this issue to describe how to build an AU or VST3 plugin. But in general, if you build 2 dynamic libraries that are both compiled with SFML, and load both libraries in a process, you will get error messages at best, undefined behavior or crashes at worst.

Expected behavior

There should be a way to rename SFML Obj-C classes to prevent name conflicts.

Actual behavior

Hardcoded Obj-C class names cause warnings like this to appear when loading frameworks/dynamic libs:

objc[19016]: Class SFApplication is implemented in both /Applications/App1.app/Contents/Frameworks/App1_AUv3_Framework.framework/Versions/A/App1_AUv3_Framework (0x117cf8be0) and /Applications/App2.app/Contents/Frameworks/App2_AUv3_Framework.framework/Versions/A/App2_AUv3_Framework (0x119720eb8). This may cause spurious casting failures and mysterious crashes. One of the duplicates must be removed or renamed.
objc[19016]: Class SFApplicationDelegate is implemented in both /Applications/App1.app/Contents/Frameworks/App1_AUv3_Framework.framework/Versions/A/App1_AUv3_Framework (0x117cf8c58) and /Applications/App2.app/Contents/Frameworks/App2_AUv3_Framework.framework/Versions/A/App2_AUv3_Framework (0x119720f30). This may cause spurious casting failures and mysterious crashes. One of the duplicates must be removed or renamed.
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