NEXTSPACE + GAP?

[Sergii Stoian]

Hi Riccardo,

> On 1 Dec 2019, at 13:07, Riccardo Mottola <riccardo.mottola@libero.it> wrote:
> 
> Hi Sergii,
> 
> 
> sorry for the long time to reply, I lost this mail

It’s OK, no worries.

> 
> On 11/23/19 11:38 PM, Sergii Stoian wrote:
>> 
>>> I'm working exactly on that, since day one with GNUstep and it has been a 
>>> very long time now.
>>> 
>> We can discuss how to join our efforts privately. What do you think?
> 
> 
> Of course! I don't mind writing in public either, but in separate threads and 
> in the appropriate mailing list (here, or maybe GAP, depending on the topic!)

Agree, it will be much better to discuss it in GAP mailing list. Basically, I 
want to find some common points in two projects (NEXTSPACE and GAP) with quite 
different goals. Potentially both projects may gain some values.

> 
>>> Actually, given the latest developments of macOS and Windows 10 which are 
>>> transforming a Desktop in a horrible sort of mega-tablet UI with 
>>> eye-hurting graphics, GNUstep DE would be kind a shelter, sadly still 
>>> incomplete and patchy... and not completely useful, although it did improve 
>>> in the many years.
>>> 
>> What do you mean by “incomplete and patchy”?
>> What do you means by “not completely useful”? NEXTSPACE quite useful for me 
>> even from development master branch. Or do you mean GNUstep libraries?
> 
> 
> I don't mean NEXTSPACE, but the Environment I get when sticking together 
> GNUstep, GAP and a couple of more things. "My" GNUstep Desktop, but the same 
> that could be available in any Distribution, if it were complete.
> 
> Some are GNUstep library bugs, but most are shortcomings or bugs in the 
> respective applications, which make the whole usage less pleasant.
> 
> Some random thoughts:
> 
> - GWorkspace is roughly acceptable

OK, I’m happy with my Workspace. ;)

> - GNUMail is still buggy... I worked hard, but some stuff is left out. 
> Sometimes it hangs in network. sometimes it does not format things correctly, 
> etc. Then it has also "limitations": way of handling addresses, address 
> books. I'd like a more flexible way of handling attachments too (not just 
> inline, but more traditional)

GNUMail quite interesting application - I'd like to have it along with 
AddressBook framework in NEXTSPACE. In addition, it needs careful visual 
refinement, IMHO.

> - ProjectCenter is quite stable now, although it has bugs when adding and 
> removing files sometimes, I fixed it crashing in many situations. Albeit 
> improved in warnings and error parsing from the compiler, it still misses 
> proper parsing! The Editor is still limited. My next work will making the 
> detached window editor useful, for example.

What's the problem with detached editor window? Last time I worked on it was 
quite useful...

> - GORM misses undo and positioning and editing of objects is more cumbersome 
> even compared to old Interface Builder versions of XCode 2 and 3.

GORM also needs some UX fixes. Unlike the ProjectCenter, GORM is must-have 
application for GNUstep developer.

> - SystemPreferences misses some OS dependent panels (e.g.xrender and wireless 
> configuration) which are hard to write given the plethora of Linux and BSD 
> setups

I’m happy with my Preferences serviced my CentOS 7. It’s not finished yet, but 
AFAIK more functional than SystemPreferences is.
If you're not familiar with goals of my project: I have no goal to make it work 
everywhere at first stage. I’ll make it work on some particular system - CentOS 
Linux 7.

> - GSPdf has some bugs with zooming and panning... I wonder if it handling 
> correctly caching too, I need to investigate

I’d like to have PDF viewer on NEXTSPACE desktop too.

> - Terminal still has some subtle bugs in selection and scrolling

You can get my version of Terminal if you want. I’ve fixed a lot of bugs and 
made it more functional and polished. At current state Terminal may be untied 
from NEXTSPACE frameworks.

> - Zipper could use a better integration with Finder/GWorkspace, the creation 
> of archives is very rough!

Another candidate to be incorporated into Workspace or as framework/application.

> and so on.... nothing of this looks terrible, but if you add these things 
> together, not just Mac or Windows are more useful, but we fall behind XFCE. 
> Maybe you are much better in NEXTSPACE, I did not check.

I understand what you’re talking about. That’s why I’m creating a “cohesive” 
set of apps called NEXTSPACE. Gathered applications always will fall behind 
integrated DE from UX point of view.

> 
> Since I use "vintage" Macs, I use many of these apps on Mac too: they are a 
> way of getting "current" stuff on an old OS: that is the nice of Open Source! 
> But even there they show most of these shortcomings. I try to fix them there 
> too, so that I can discern between an App limitation and a specific GNUstep 
> bug.

Unfortunately it’s out of scope of my project because of limited developer 
resources.

> 
> Riccardo
> 

Sergii