Re: Is GNUstep really cross platform? (was: FW: GNUstep on MS Windows (Oh boy...i've done it now!))

[Philip Mötteli]

Am 04.12.2003 um 21:57 schrieb John Davidorff Pell:
> I think that the biggest thing that GNUstep could do is make it run on 
> the next runtime, or even make it compile and link its own gnu runtime 
> on darwin. With this I, and many like me, would happily develop for 
> *both* GNUstep and MacOSX, without any need to *hope* that GNUstep 
> will compile my sources.

I'm sorry, but the problem, you're mentionning is not as big as you 
think. It's right, the runtimes are not compatibel, but

1. You shouldn't need to go down to the runtime anyway. This should 
really happen very, very rarely.
2. GS already offers a lot of compatibility functions. Just use those 
functions and they will automagically compile on both platforms.


> > as long as you stick to the Foundation/AppKit, most things will 
> > compile on Mac OS X
>
> At the moment, GNUstep won't even try to compile on MacOSX (that's 
> only a slight exaggeration)

That's a long time ago, that GS didn't compile on MOSX. We have moved 
forward a long time ago. We already ported GDL2 (EOF) and in a few days 
I gonna probably release a binary installer package for GSWeb 
(WebObjects).
Just make a check-out from CVS of GS and you will even find an Xcode 
project file.
It's even better: For the GS core, we only use the difference from GS 
compared to Apple's Foundation framework.


> I've noticed over the time that I've been following GNUstep that some 
> effort is put into making the latest updates from apple become part of 
> GNUstep, without much consideration for making the old stuff work 
> *well*, or for making the *new* stuff work well. Actually, its more 
> like there is very little effort being put into GNUstep to begin with, 
> but that's the whole subject of this thread...

Exactly. But as soon, as the MOSX people will be up to date, how usable 
GS already is on MOSX, they will hopefully show the respect it 
deserves.
You seem to be a good example of how misinformed the MOSX community 
still is. Though I made an announcement very recently, concerning a 
downloadable binary installer package containing GDL2 and GS for MOSX.


> By solid I do NOT mean stable. GNUstep is very stable, but it is not 
> solid. This is a problem with many open source projects, gnome and kde 
> included. All over the place new features are added that depend on 
> so-and-so 3rd party library, but then no two compilations are 
> compatible and all kinds of things require recompilation of the entire 
> lib suite!

In order to compile the core of GS you don't need to install anything 
at all on your Panther box. No lib, nothing.


> With GNUstep it is an even bigger issue, since we have the concept of 
> DO. This means that you really do need to have most boxes be 
> compatible, not to mention all builds on the same computer compatible.

GSs DO and Apple's DO are not compatible, because Apple doesn't open 
its specifications. But you still might use something like XMLRPC.


> I've not actually used GNustep in a short while, since my primary box 
> is MacOSX, maybe I'm the one who's out of date.

You're definitely living somewhere in the tertiaer or before!


Re
Phil