Re: ANN: mySTEP-1.1 for Zaurus available -> MacOS X/Cocoa compatible GUI on Linux PDA

[Dr. Nikolaus Schaller]

hns@computer.org (Dr. Nikolaus Schaller) wrote in message 
news:<e5f20ec4.0308060035.13dc27e4@posting.google.com>...
> A new alpha release (well, more a concept study) is released.
> It was modified to run on the Zaurus with ROM 3.10.
> It has been tested on a Z5500G, but feedback/support from the Z5600
> and C7xx users is very welcome!
> 
> The goal of myPDA is to come to a MacOS X/Cocoa compatible Linux PDA
> software platform.
> 

Now, also a new release (1.1) of the Foundation and AppKit library
(based on mGstep/GNUstep) is available for the Zaurus at

http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=mySTEP

Nikolaus Schaller

Changes:
General
* nil changed to be (void *) 0
* NSOpenStepRootDirectory() added to return /home/myPDA and made the
single reference to the file system locations

NSTimeZone
* database files added from GNUStep
* search path modified

NSProperyListSerialization
* Class added (Header file in: NSPropertyList.h) and partially
implemented
* two extra (compared to Cocoa) encodings added:
NSPropertyListAnyFormat and NSPropertyListStringFileFormat

NSString
- (id) propertyList;
   made to recognize XML based property lists

- (NSRange) rangeOfString:(NSString *) aString options:(unsigned int)
mask range:(NSRange) aRange;
- (NSComparisonResult) compare:(NSString*)aString options:(unsigned
int)mask range:(NSRange)aRange;
- (NSString*) commonPrefixWithString:(NSString*)aString
options:(unsigned int)mask;
- (BOOL) isEqualToString:(NSString*)aString;
   added internal NSAutoreleasePool for non-literal search to handle
composed Unichars (would otherwise flood the memory)

NSDictionary
+ (id) dictionaryFromFile:(NSString *) path;
   made to recognize XML based property lists

NSScanner
* improved speed a little
* WARNING:
   avoid calls like [scanner scanCharactersFromSet:[NSCharacterSet
characterSetWithCharactersInString:@" \t\n\r"] intoString:nil];
   -- this will allocate a fresh autoreleased NSCharacterSet each loop
cycle -> flooding the memory with approx. 8200 bytes each
   -- There is no real cure to that. There could be a NSStringCharSet
subclass which optimizes memory for short strings
   -- also, NSBitmapCharSet could optimize its bifields by saving a
range outside which all characters are assumed to be no members

NSBundle
* made to cope with the situation that the application executable is
not within a bundle -> mainBundle == nil
* executablePath added to return the proper platform dependent
location in a Fat Binary application bundle
* some other methods added (but only some implemented)

NSWorkspace
* made to search for applications and file types when first used

NSProcessInfo
- (NSString *) globallyUniqueString;
  made to contain no : or [ or blank characters (unless hostname
contains these characters)
* removed MGSTEP_ROOT environment or command line mechanism - now uses
exclusively NSOpenStepRootDirectory()

NSMailDelivery
* a first draft header file (Message/NSMailDelivery.h) added