decode_interface_builder failed on every flat (keyed-archive) NIB that
holds plist data or dates. Archived colors keep their components as
data, so this covers nearly every AppKit NIB: XLD.app decoded 0 of 64.
The decoded Uint8Array and Date values failed JSON validation. They now
use the shared plist projection, which keeps them as explicit
$plist_type values.
Decoding those archives exposed a second failure. The keyed-archive
parser inlined every UID reference up to 16 levels for every object, so
an archive whose views reference their window, superview, and next key
view expanded exponentially. A 9 KB NIB took 3 s, and a 158 KB
MainMenu.nib did not finish. A reference now resolves to its string, or
to a stub naming the referenced object's archive UID, authored ID, and
class. The hierarchy walk visits each object once. The parser also reads
XML CF$UID references and treats UID 0 as nil.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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