Re: I wrote about the new GSDE package on the Register

[Liam Proven]

On Fri, 7 Jul 2023 at 17:51, Gregory Casamento <greg.casamento@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am really happy to see this article.  I only have one bit of feedback...
>
> "GNUstep has been around since the 1990s, and has re-implemented a 
> substantial amount of NeXTstep, completely from scratch. "
>
> Could we please stop saying NEXTSTEP?  This only furthers the 
> misunderstanding that GNUstep is limited to an OS that stopped being produced 
> long ago.   Also, we have far exceeded NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP.  It is much 
> better to say that we have re-implemented a substantial amount of Cocoa.   
> Otherwise the article is wonderful.  Thank you for getting the word out. :)

I'm very glad you liked it.

We've gone around the NeXTstep-vs-MacOS thing before. I don't know if
you remember.

*In this case*, no, I have to disagree.

GSDE seems to me to very clearly and definitely be trying to recreate
NeXTstep, *not* Mac OS X.

I like that. I approve of that.

In context, trying to spell out that GNUstep is aiming at something
else would only be confusing.

Secondly, Apple itself no longer uses the term Cocoa and that itself
is obsolete terminology, so I don't think it's a useful comparison or
term. I think the reverse is true. It's unhelpful and unclear and
confusing.

I don't have a better answer right now, sadly, but in the context of a
desktop environment, no, I think making a comparison to an obsolete
and discontinued Apple internal API spec would be considerably *less*
helpful.

Note that on Apple's own page:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/CocoaFundamentals/WhatIsCocoa/WhatIsCocoa.html

There is a big warning:

«
Retired Document

Important: This document may not represent best practices for current
development. Links to downloads and other resources may no longer be
valid.
»

I do not have a proposal but I think the name Coca went away a full
decade ago and you need something more useful to replace it.


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