Re: GWorkspace porting troubles

[LHelldorf]

>Hi,
>
>First, I'd just like to say that I'm glad you're taking this 
>initiative ! Now, I had to abandon my linux-GNUstep box to one of my 
>employees, so I'm working only on OSX now. Hence, I'm not quite sure 
>what GWorkspace is anymore... Is it the "Configuration" thing that lets 
>you choose the colors of your windows, and so forth ? What's the 
>relation of it with the Finder and WindowMaker ?

GWorkspace is the graphical shell of GNUstep, the thing where you can 
browse all your files, start Apps etc. The equivalent on Mac OS X is the 
Finder, written in Carbon (overhauled Mac OS Toolbox written in C) which I 
consider ugly.

>
>Now, I don't know if it really makes sense to make competition to 
>Apple's Finder... Anyway, what I think is missing in GNUstep is Apple's 

Given the rapid development possibilities GNUstep/Cocoa offers I think 
that's not to far off. At least if enough developers join the project.

>"System Preferences". They have indeed an objc class, NSPreferencePane, 
>that developers subclass to implement a new System Preferences item. 
>Very handy ! I doubt GNUstep has such a mechanism and IMHO GNUstep is 
>better off playing with Apple rather than against her. If GWorkspace is 
>meant to configure options, I think it would be better to work on 
>compatibility issues with Apple's "System Preferences" mechanism.
>
>I don't know, but I think the RETAIN, ASSIGN,... macros are there to 
>make garbage collection possible, and I don't think Apple's in the same 
>mindset as the GNUstep people regarding this issue. I would consider it 
>inessential for existing apps that are anyway designed to not take 
>advantage of GC. Therefore, I would rather patch GWorkspace so it 
>doesn't use Macros, but that might well be a lot of work, I don't 
>know... Or maybe you could write a quick hack that does this 
>automatically...

I hope I can handle this by defining the missing macros in a headerfile 
(like some others suggested). Another idea (from Dirk 
d.theisen@objectpark.de)is to create a GNUstepExtension.Framework for Mac 
OS X. I'll write another mail on this topic.

>
>Others are talking about the setup mechanisms for the various Linux 
>distributions on another thread at this moment. I think this *is* an 
>issue indeed, and that at least the *step people should agree on a 
>common policy. Offering developers a common harmonized way to use the 
>defaults system is a first step in the right direction, IMHO.
>
>Please tell me what you think,
>
>Aurélien

Greetings, Lars