GNUstep is a set of general-purpose Objective-C libraries based on the OpenStep standard developed by NeXT (now Apple) Inc. Changes include in NSWindow, DnD now works on the whole window, and events are propogated up to the first DnD aware view. Absolute paths and DnD work in OpenPanels.
GNUstep 0.9.1 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I have been on the GNUstep website just a few hours ago and didn’t see a change. I just checked back and still no change. The 0.9.1 packages were released on November 24. Is there something up and do you know more details? If so, would you please share some insights?
Thank you very much and keep up the good work. Regards.
It has just being announced on Freshmeat.
I see, thank you.
This+Darwin would get most of OSX functionality?
i don’t think Apple uses OpenStep. i think they use cocoa and quartz extreme.
This+Darwin would get most of OSX functionality?
No. There is no “desktop”, just a bunch of development libraries. The apps written for it in my experience are very beta or alpha.
OSX functionality isn’t simple a question of cocoa (after all there’s carbon framework as well), it’s more a function of quartz and the quartz widget set. What this does mean is that there is some (but hardly easy) portability between the two platforms. I’m wondering if the gnustep folk are going to try to implement the new Panther api’s…
Cocoa is the name Apple has given to their implementation and enhancement of the OpenStep APIs. Quartz is their rendering technology based on PDF. OpenStep used display postscript (DPS), which is licensed from Adobe. The change to using PDF has now saved Apple huge amounts on licensing fees because it is an open standard. GNUStep has been written to allow for an arbitrary backend, whether DPS (or GhostScript) based, PDF, or something else along the road. Also, the GNUStep APIs are being updated with the changes that Apple is making to Cocoa, IIRC.
— Rob
<p><cite>i don’t think Apple uses OpenStep. i think they use cocoa and quartz extreme.</cite></p>
<p>Cocoa is merely OpenStep with some extensions. The ease of porting OS X apps to GNUstep shows that OpenStep still remains the basis for Apple’s current APIs.</p>
<p>And the fact that Apple uses Quartz Extreme has no relation to OpenStep. OpenStep allows one to have multiple display methods. GNUstep offers libart, x11, and Display Ghostscript, and others have been developing DirectFB and Cairo display backends.</p>
This is important. OpenStep is a well designed development enviornment that makes application development much faster than traditional application development and produces much more polished applications (which any operating system can benefit from). It would be nice to see more of the community’s weight being thrown behind this. It would give Linux a real competitive advantage over Windows not to mention that the source code of applications would be practically identical to that of Mac OS X source code.
How easy is it to port a Cocoa app over to GNUStep? I’m interested in writing Cocoa apps with Objective-C but I haven’t gotten down to it as I’m worried I’ll lose all portability.
Then you may find this of interest: http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/May2002/article241.shtml
BTW Im using GNUMail on OS X Great App
AZ
There is a move called “Simply GNU Step” whose aim is to create a OpenStep like operating system based off the Linux 2.6 kernel which will include the unique NeXT Step directory structure etc.
Can anyone shed light onto how feature complete it is? how far away are they from completing it? their progress page is rather vague.
They were featured here last year; read the article at
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=498
They have ( used to have?) a run-from-CD iso for downloading
http://mac.wms-network.de/gnustep/WebCore/blog/
It was indeed officially released on November 24, Adam just updated the entry on Freshmeat for it yesterday.
Version 0.9.1 refers to the -gui/-back (aka AppKit and the Backend) of GNUstep. The version of -make/-base (aka Foundation) is 1.9.0.