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merjs Desktop (experimental)

A native macOS app wrapper for merjs. Single Zig binary. Zero node_modules. No Electron.

zig build desktop
open zig-out/MerApp.app

What it does

  1. Spins up the merjs HTTP server on a random local port
  2. Opens a native NSWindow + WKWebView pointing at that port
  3. Packages as a proper .app bundle

How it works

The ObjC bridge uses extern fn declarations for three runtime primitives (objc_getClass, sel_registerName, objc_msgSend) and typed function pointer casts for every method call. No @cImport of AppKit/WebKit headers — those contain Objective-C syntax that Zig's translate-c can't parse.

See spike.zig for the full research notes and the interop pattern decision (issue #50).

Files

File Purpose
spike.zig #50 research spike — proves Zig→ObjC bridge pattern
main.zig Full app: server thread + NSApp run loop + WKWebView

Status

Experimental. The window opens and loads the merjs site from a local server. Known gaps:

  • No app icon
  • No cmd+w / cmd+q keyboard shortcuts wired to [NSApp terminate:]
  • No code signing (runs fine locally, not distributable via App Store)
  • Server shutdown on window close not yet wired

Build output

zig-out/
  bin/
    merapp                    ← raw binary (also works standalone)
  MerApp.app/
    Contents/
      MacOS/
        merapp                ← same binary
      Info.plist