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Re: GNUstep roadmap (was Re: [Suggestion] GNUstep-test for quality contr


From: Philip Mötteli
Subject: Re: GNUstep roadmap (was Re: [Suggestion] GNUstep-test for quality control)
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 08:06:51 +0200

Hi


Am Mittwoch, 22.10.03, um 04:41 Uhr (Europe/Zurich) schrieb Adam Fedor:
On Monday, October 20, 2003, at 01:22 AM, Philippe C.D. Robert wrote:
But to remain at least a little on-topic allow me to ask this question (as a simple user resp. programmer who needs to decide whether to use it or not): where will the GNUstep project be within 12 months (which will be more or less GUI 1.0)? What is the (realistic) roadmap for the GNUstep project anyway?

Well I've thought about that question a lot, obviously, but I don't have a really good answer. Most of my goals revolve around the concept of the GNUstep Desktop. That is, I can have a lot of individual goals about the GNUstep development platform, but it's hard to know what's really important without a consensus of what the "reference" GNUstep Desktop would look like. Will it be "all GNUstep", with our own Window Manager, or do we need to give up our small town mentality and try to integrate better with KDE and/or Gnome. What are the really important things that people want to accomplish with GNUstep?

I don't much care which way it goes. I've been working on GNUstep for over 10 years now, and I just keep going for the fun of it, not because I have any aspirations that it will become some wildly popular, unbeatable project. My one hope is that it will be useful before it becomes obsolete :-)

I dare adding my 2c… For me, Gnustep are first of all the libraries. Not a filemanager, nor a desktop, nor a system, nor development tools (apart of the libraries, obviously). So I personally regret a lot, that so much effort is spent in things, that are not especially unique, but are already implemented, maintained and evolved by so many others. I mean something like GDL2 is unique and just "insanely great", isn't it? But ProjectCenter compared to KDevelop is just way, way behind and unfortunately will probably never be even half the way of KDevelop. Though I would prefer having ProjectCenter, Gnustep-Filemanager, Gnustep-Desktop,… I just think, that we anyway don't have the resources to catch up with those people. So why not spend these resources more into what makes Gnustep unique and just invest, what we absolutely need, in order to reuse (KDevelop, KDE, Gnome,…) what others already have done? I mean the idea behind OO is reusability, not reinvent the wheel over and over again? Don't misunderstand me: me too, I would prefer having a complete Gnustep-system, but we just do not have the needed resources for it, I'd say.

So in my eyes, the most important things would be:
1. Complete the already offered libraries. Especially in GDL2, where a lot is missing.
2. Debug them.
3. Improve the Windows port! (This is the second unique part of GS: Cross platform) 4. Implement some plug-ins or other ways to make KDevelop or any other well maintained development tool, compatibel with Gnustep.
5. Dito for a desktop environment. Preferably KDE.

Or to attack the same problem from another point of view: Why might somebody move to GS? I don't think many people do that because of a filemanager or a desktop. Especially not now and the future won't change that, because we just do not attract enough people so far to push such a project. I think the main reason, why GS might be used in the future, is because software companies, mainly from the Apple world, will want to sell/use their software on three platforms: MOSX, Linux et all. and Windows. This is a tremendous opportunity. The other reason, I can imagine, is that somebody knows, that OpenStep has great development libraries though unfortunately the rest of the development tools are missing…

Now of course, why I just don't do it myself? I would love to do it, but how do I survive? I'm doing a PhD without a boursery or any savings – and I just can't find a job in the GS world. There's just no time at all left. But I would love to!


Just my 2c!
(another) Phil





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