Re: Objective-C standard

[Andreas Höschler]

Hello all,

> > now that OpenStep seems basically dead GNUstep becomes something like 
> > Mono,

OPENSTEP yes, but OpenStep (the specification, or was it vice versa) is 
more alive than ever. There's Cocoa and a bunch of companies developing 
software for this platform and there is GNUstep which while running on 
Solaris and in combination with Sun Secure Global Desktop solves all 
(cross) platform related problems. We (Smartsoft) once were wondering 
when GNUstep for Windows would become usable so that we no longer had 
to convince new customers to replace their PCs with Macs. Now with SGD 
(can be freely used) this is no longer necessary. The combination of 
Solaris (rock solid OS), Sun Ray (Ultra Thin Client), Sun Secure Global 
Desktop (run application on the server and use it from everywhere) and 
GNUstep is a killer, at least in the enterprise market.

> >  a more or less precarious clone of a proprietary API that is of use 
> > mainly for porting existing codebases.
>
> This seems to be true.

Not quite true. We are currently in the process of replacing Macs with 
Sun Rays (Solaris/Window Maker/GNUstep) and are actually developing new 
software (mission critical database applications) on GNUstep. Of course 
we could also compile our applications for the Mac but our preferred 
deployment platform is Solaris/GNUstep now.

> For how I could see Obj-C's (and above) market acceptance improved, 
> see my answer to YL's post.

I have missed this post but IMHO people with some interest to check out 
a new language or API need a defined platform to do so. OPENSTEP 4.2 
was such a platform for me in the old days. Install some CDs, read a 
few pages about Objective-C and Foundation and have 'Hello World' 
running very quickly. Right now such a platform is only delivered by 
Apple, though I don't like xCode very much and in my opinion it's too 
complex for beginners, but that's another story. There is no such 
defined platform based on GNUstep, that could be installed with a 
doubleclick. I think we need maintainers for binary distributions of 
GNUstep for at least the most important platforms (Solaris, SuSE, 
Debian,...). And these distribution should not only contain base gui 
and back but also Window Maker, TextEdit.app, Terminal.app, 
GNUMail.app, ProjectBuilder.app, InterfaceBuilder.app, StarOffice.app 
(wrapper)... to name only a few (just a complete desktop).

This defined platform gives beginners a real chance to check out 
Objective-C, OpenStep with acceptable effort. And it would provide a 
deployment platform for software sold in a box. Right now GNUstep based 
software can only be sold as part of a project that includes setting up 
an application server (installing GNUstep from sources). As soon as we 
see GNUstep based commercial (killer) applications (that can be used 
with any client device/os thanks to SGD), we have market acceptance for 
Objective-C/GNUstep.

Regards,

  Andreas