Re: NSViews backed by layers in libs-gui (was: Re: Paid Programmers for GNUStep)

[dr_clow]

Hi Svetlana, 

Thank you for the response. 

Sadly, I am not a 'dr', it was more of an aspiration when I made this email account in 2000(?). It was a reference to the Dr Pepper that was on my desk (I was like 14?). A few years ago, I decided NOT to pursue a doctorate (I was exhausted), maybe one day! So Austin is fine. 

To answer your question,  a lot of modern apps that I work on (and specifically the one I want to port to GNUStep) use CALayers. I could do without it, I suppose, but it really is a glaring gap in GNUStep's implementation. Commenting those lines out would make the apps very dull. 

Additionally, I am interested in making a UIKit to GNUStep, and CALayers are very pervasive there. I am currently planning to do this by wrapping libs-gui in a Swift library, but even then I would need CALayers working or that functionality wouldn't be included. And it must. 

I have also been looking at how to best port SwiftUI once we can get true Swift integration running. 

I have a few internal apps that I want to port to GNUStep or a GNUStep based 'distribution' and they will require CALayers. 

Closing these gaps will make GNUStep more approachable for more 'flashy' apps. And GNUStep REALLY needs these killer apps.

When I was considering the projects that I could be most effective today implementing, NSViews backed by CALayers weren't on the list and it would require a lot of coöperation with the team that I am not sure I can facilitate. I'm not having a lot of response from some of the changes that I thought were needed and have proposed with working code and I am concerned it is just my level of expertise, which is understandable. 

Currently, there is a project, https://github.com/gnustep/libs-quartzcore (last updated, August 20, 2012), that attempts to implement CALayers, but lacks NSView backing.

 I appreciate your interest here. :-) Thank you!

On Sep 13, 2023, at 8:01 PM, Svetlana Tkachenko <svetlana@members.fsf.org> wrote:

Hi Dr Clow (please let me know how to address you if this is incorrect),

I'm not one of the GNUstep developers, I contributed to some apps many years ago.

I appreciate your suggestion of donating and having progress in specific areas. I am hoping this will be responded to by other more experienced contributors.

Saw this line in your original message,

2) NSViews backed by layers in libs-gui (instead of as a side project). I am really needing this.

What is the application for this? How will this be useful? Hope this is OK to ask, it would be helpful to me.

Many thanks.

Regards,
Svetlana

--
Svetlana Tkachenko, Associate Member of the Free Software Foundation
= Gryllida, Volunteer developer for the Wikimedia movement
http://www.wikimedia.org http://www.fsf.org http://www.gnu.org
SIP: gryllida23@sip.linphone.org