ANN: Openstep for Zaurus: mySTEP-1.4, myPDA-3.1a5 ANN: Openstep for Zaurus: mySTEP-1.3, myPDA-3.1a4, Zaurus-gcc-2.95.3X10.3a1 ANN: Openstep for Zaurus: mySTEP-1.4, myPDA-3.1a5

[Dr. Nikolaus Schaller]

Dear all,
again new releases for the GNUstep clone "mySTEP" for the Sharp Zaurus and
its runtime environment "myPDA" (X11 + window manager) as well as
an update for the gcc cross-compiler development kit hosted on MacOS
X 10.3 are available.

The system is becoming more and more mature - although it is not
yet ripe enough for productivity. It allows you to take the source of Cocoa
applications, add a simple shell-script build phase, and compile into a "fat
binary" .app bundle that runs verbatim on MacOS X as well as on a
standard Zaurus on which myPDA is installed.

It is also possible to create 240x320 windows with Interface Builder
and have them displayed (with some elements missing) on the Zaurus.
Elements like buttons and menus are also working. The SDK takes care
of translating the NIB files into .mib [.gmodel] files.

New in this release are:
* a working implementation of NSMenuView and NSMenuItemCell
* Model file processing improved and integrated with nib2mib [nib2gmodel]
* NSBezierPath, NSAffineTransform prepared
* NSAttributedString Drawing Extensions added
* several bugs fixed (see HISTORY.rtf in the source codes)
* and many minor functions added to be more compatible to Cocoa
* additional libraries like PreferencePanes, MenuExtras, SimpleWebKit started
* myFinder now works to a level that allows to browse the the file hierarchy 
  and to open applications

Development is continuing. Currently, the menu system is working
and showing a menu and a status bar resembling that used in MacOS X.
Menus pop up and can be operated in the MacOS X way. One known
drawback is the speed of the Info.plist parsing - the NSScanner functions
will be improved in the next release.

Here a short description of the parts of the system:

"myPDA" (a clone of mGSTEP/GNUstep) is the runtime environment. It is an
 application that can be started from within Qtopia on the Zaurus. It
 shuts down Qtopia, starts the X11 server on the Zaurus and a window
 manager and launches myFinder (which is working in some very basic way).
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=myPDA

"mySTEP" provides shared libraries libFoundation, libAppKit,
 libAddressBook, libPreferencePane, libSystemUI (MenuExtras), libWebKit for the
 Zaurus-Linux. libFoundation is approx. 98% compatible. libAppKit
 implements approx. 70% of the Mac counterpart.
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=mySTEP

"Zaurus-gcc" is a binary distribution of the gcc Linux-ARM Cross Compiler
 for installation on MacOS X - with direct integration into Xcode.
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=Zaurus%20X-gcc

"myPDA SDK for Xcode" contains the headers and binary libraries as
 a plug-in for the cross compiler.
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=myPDA%20SDK%20for%20Xcode

System requirements:
* Sharp Zaurus (tested on 5500G with ROM 3.10) - no SD/CF required
  but recommended
* MacOS X 10.3 incl. Xcode, X11SDK installed
* a connection between the machines (USB or WLAN)

If you are interested in integrating a mobile, low-cost, MacOS X compatible
handheld-computer into your MacOS X based IT applications, please contact
us to dicuss projects.

As mySTEP is LGPL based on GNUstep, we would be very happy if someone
succeeds to intergate and contribute back the new menu system (NSMenuView,
NSMenuItemCell) to the GNUstep project to that we owe our rapid progress.

Nikolaus