> This simple and elegant solution would not have been possible with C++
Actually, it would, but not via any feature of the language. You can use features of the linker to accomplish this (particularly LD_PRELOAD). It's not the same thing, really, but it felt worth mentioning for the record.
In our case, the LD_PRELOAD approach would not have worked because this was on iOS devices where you can't set that variable. However, I do appreciate you mentioning it because it too is a powerful mechanism that enables some creative and non-invasive solutions in some cases.
