Re: Introduction, and Proposed GSFH.

[Stefan Urbanek]

Hello,

* User/Developer files separation

My suggetsion is to separate gnustep* packages into two: user and
developer. User package will contain libraries, resources, tools and
apps. Developer packages will contain header files and makefiles. Move
Makefiles and Headers into System/Developer directory. 

I think, there should be a flag used by gnustep-make to create full or
just user installation/package.

This should install everything:
        > make install

This should install only user files:
        > make disttype=user install

When creating binary distribution packages (deb, rpm, tar.gz) onse
should specify flag disttype:
        user - user only files
        dev - developer files (headers, makefiles,...)
        doc - package documentation
        all - everything

* Documantation

Put user documentation (about GNUstep apps, tools, ...) into
/System/Documentation and devel documentation into
/System/Developer/Documentation

* Init scripts

Move GNUstep.csh and GNUstep.sh from Makefiles into /System/Tools
directory.

* Other

Also from users point of view, I think, that it is better not to prefix
directories with NS (it looks nicer, but it is a matter of taste).

So the directory structure should look like:

/System
        ...
        /Developer
                /Applications
                        ProjectCenter.app
                        Gorm.app
                /Documentation
                /Headers
                /Makefiles
                ...
        /Documentation
        /Tools
                GNUstep.sh
                GNUstep.csh
                ...
        ...


Stefan

Tim Harrison wrote:
> 
> <considering the whole #import/#include flamewar lately, I hesitated to
> post this, but have been urged to do so, so please be gentle>
> 
> Hello all.
> 
> First off, let me introduce myself.  My name is Tim Harrison (as I'm
> sure you can see from my address :)).  I am not a GNUstep developer.
> I'm just starting with Objective-C and GNUstep (about 5 months now), and
> have only done a minimal amount of C/C++ work in the past 10 years.
> 
> What I am, is a network administrator, designer, and engineer.  At
> least, those are the titles I keep ending up having. :)  I have a
> fondness for operating systems, and, currently, have a shelf and a room
> full of machines and OSs.
> 
> About 5 months ago, I was talking with my close friend and partner in
> crime about development environments.  He develops in more languages
> than I can count on my fingers and toes.  His favourite is Objective-C.
>   As a Mac and Linux user, he wanted the kind of dev environment on
> Linux that he had on his OS X machine.  I offhandedly made a comment
> that he should write his own operating system.  We laughed, I went home,
> and it was forgotten for about... an hour.
> 
> Later that evening, I started ripping apart my SuSE installation, and
> creating a test system.  When I showed it to my friend in the morning,
> he was overcome with joy, and suggested we continue, and really build it.
> 
> Five months later, and we're working on finishing the latest release of
> what has been dubbed (rather unimaginatively -- blame me for that)
> LinuxSTEP.  Currently, the system is not easily installable, and has
> many things terribly wrong with it.  However, 0.2.5 will fix all those
> issues, and will be installable via either CD-ROM, or over the internet.
> 
> So, enough about that.  Down to my real purpose for this post.
> 
> Lately, with LinuxSTEP development, I've been finding it exceedingly
> harder and harder to integrate GNUstep.  The primary reason being, it's
> filesystem layout leaves empty directories, redundant directories (well,
> at least on LinuxSTEP), and the organisation seems a little confusing.
> Upon casting about for some documentation on why things were designed
> the way they were, I came up with little to nothing.
> 
> After speaking with a few of the regulars on the #GNUstep IRC channel
> (in which I'm a constant pain in the hindquarters), I decided I'd have a
> go at a Proposed GNUstep Filesystem Hierarchy Document.  However, as I
> sat down to write it, a few nagging questions came to mind:
> 
> 1.  Is this supposed to mimic OPENSTEP?
> 2.  Does GNUstep, as the website says, intend to lean more toward Mac OS X?
> 3.  Who does one talk to about the basic layout of this thingee?
> 4.  There had to be some docs somewhere at one point... where might they be?
> 5.  Am I sacrificing a sacred cow by proposing that certain things be
> changed?
> 6.  Is my tea water boiling?
> 
> I could find an answer to only one of those questions.  So, I commenced
> writing, and have produced a quick pre-pre-pre-first draft of a proposed
> GNUstep Filesystem Hierarchy Document, which, at this point in time,
> only includes the "System" directory.
> 
> Considering I know how annoyed I get when people send attachments to my
> mailing lists (and in a thinly veiled and desperate attempt to drive
> traffic to our website -- please forgive the HORRIBLE HTML, I'm no good
> at it), I have made it available on the web for perusal, with the
> intention of sparking some very constructive discussion.  The document
> can be viewed at:
> 
> http://www.linuxstep.org/documentation/GNUstepFH.html
> 
> Because LinuxSTEP and GNUstep will be so tightly integrated (GNUstep
> will be as much a part of LinuxSTEP as, say, glibc, or gcc), it's very
> important to me to know that the two will play nicely together.  I also
> wanted to attempt to contribute in some way.  As I mentioned waaay up at
> the top, I'm not a very good coder, so I've tried my best to help in
> other ways.
> 
> So, please, check out what I've written, and give me your constructive
> criticism.  I'm eager to continue with my work on shoehorning GNUstep
> into LinuxSTEP, so this type of discussion is very important to me.
> 
> Also, in case anyone is curious, and with all due respect to Mr. Hardin
> for his excellent work with Simply GNUstep, LinuxSTEP is a *VERY*
> different beastie.  It's been designed to NOT be a standard Linux
> system.  I know we'll probably take a bit of flack for that, and I have
> no problem with that.  We, the LinuxSTEP team, will be happy if we're
> the only ones who end up using it, when all is said and done.
> 
> --
> 
> Tim Harrison
> harrison@timharrison.com
> http://www.linuxstep.org/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss-gnustep mailing list
> Discuss-gnustep@gnu.org
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnustep