At first I thought it might have something to do with C++. But then I looked a little closer and then it looked like it is building up information about information contained in a linked list called "gdb_objc_trampolines".
A google search yields: https://opensource.apple.com/source/objc4/objc4-437/runtime/objc-gdb.h
But in the actual runtime, ojc4-709, I find only a reference to it in `libobjc.order`.
libobjc.order
32:_gdb_objc_trampolines_changed
So I'd like to know if AppleObjCVTables is just used for these apparently obsolete objc_trampoline_header structures, or if there is more to it.
Ciao
Nat!
One of the strategies for speeding up ObjC dispatch was for the runtime to include a vtable that did direct dispatch for some very common methods (e.g. -[NSArray count]). Since method dispatch is dynamic, we always have to figure out the implementation for a given selector, so we had to be able to detect & decode these vtables. That strategy is no longer used in recent versions of the ObjC runtime. It's been a couple of years now, so it's about time to declare that we no longer support older versions of OS X that still have the feature, and take it out. Why do you ask?
Jim
Thanks for the answer, it makes it clearer.
I have my own Objective-C runtime, and I am using AppleV1 as a starting point for my own LanguageRuntime plugin. I didn't even know, that the vtab wasn't used anymore in Apple's Objective-C 
Ciao
Nat!