GNUstep for database applications (Re: GNUstep (desktop) for enterprises)

[Wolfgang Keller]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:45:36 +0200, Pete French wrote
(in message <E1GI22C-0005U8-MT@toybox.twisted.org.uk>):

>> How many (who) companies are using or planning to use base, gui, =
>> back for real enterprise applications?
> 
> Whats an enterprise application ?

Most "enterprise applications" I've seen so far are customer-specific 
database applications.

And this "niche" is H-U-G-E. Just look at all those companies that sell RAD 
tools for the development of such applications: MS (Visual Basic and Visual 
Foxpro), Borland (Delphi), Sybase (Powerbuilder), Oracle (Forms etc.), 
Clarion, Omnis, Filemaker, 4D, Progress, Gupta,...

GNUstep could very well attract a _lot_ of developers in this domain, given 
the productivity it offers - and productivity matters a _lot_ in the domain 
of customer-specific applications, because you can't pay off the development 
cost over a large number of customers.

GNUstep (development & runtime) would only

- need to be available on most major platforms (Windows, *x/*BSD, MacOS X)
- keep working on the development of an EOF clone
- allow to develop for GNustep in other languages besides Objective-C

Why the latter? Because a lot of the developers who implement database 
applications for companies aren't full computer-scientists and don't speak 
(Objective-)C(++) as their native language. So languages like Visual Basic, 
Delphi and all those 4GLs are a _lot_ easier for them to learn and use.

Among the FOSS languages, Python already halfway works with GNUstep, but only 
halfway. Someone would need to complete the port. Someone who knows GNustep, 
Objective-C (and Python).

Otherwise, there are Free Pascal (not garbage collected afaik :-( ) or Eiffel 
(which already works with Cocoa).

Sincerely,

Wolfgang Keller

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