元类和本类

由图可知，类和元类是一个闭环，实例的isa指针指向类，类的isa指针指向元类，元类的isa指针指向根元类，根元类指向自身，而根元类的父类是NSObject。 

元类是 Class 对象的类。每个类（Class）都依附于自己的元类。

每个类都有自己的方法列表。这意味着所有的类对象都不同：
1.类方法存放在元类中，实例方法存放在类中

类本身就是一个结构体：typedef struct objc_class *Class;
，而本类中一些重要的结构体（结构体中的结构体）如下：

struct _prop_t {
	const char *name;
	const char *attributes;
};

struct _protocol_t;

struct _objc_method {
	struct objc_selector * _cmd;
	const char *method_type;
	void  *_imp;
};

struct _protocol_t {
	void * isa;  // NULL
	const char *protocol_name;
	const struct _protocol_list_t * protocol_list; // super protocols
	const struct method_list_t *instance_methods;
	const struct method_list_t *class_methods;
	const struct method_list_t *optionalInstanceMethods;
	const struct method_list_t *optionalClassMethods;
	const struct _prop_list_t * properties;
	const unsigned int size;  // sizeof(struct _protocol_t)
	const unsigned int flags;  // = 0
	const char ** extendedMethodTypes;
};

struct _ivar_t {
	unsigned long int *offset;  // pointer to ivar offset location
	const char *name;
	const char *type;
	unsigned int alignment;
	unsigned int  size;
};

struct _class_ro_t {
	unsigned int flags;
	unsigned int instanceStart;
	unsigned int instanceSize;
	const unsigned char *ivarLayout;
	const char *name;
	const struct _method_list_t *baseMethods;
	const struct _objc_protocol_list *baseProtocols;
	const struct _ivar_list_t *ivars;
	const unsigned char *weakIvarLayout;
	const struct _prop_list_t *properties;
};

struct _class_t {
	struct _class_t *isa;
	struct _class_t *superclass;
	void *cache;
	void *vtable;
	struct _class_ro_t *ro;
};

struct _category_t {
	const char *name;
	struct _class_t *cls;
	const struct _method_list_t *instance_methods;
	const struct _method_list_t *class_methods;
	const struct _protocol_list_t *protocols;
	const struct _prop_list_t *properties;
};