From:	 Dennis Leeuw <dleeuw@made-it.com>
To:	 mjhammel@lwn.net
Subject: GNUstep article
Date:	 Wed, 30 May 2001 04:44:01 +0200

GNUstep, should I join ?

That's what I like about Open Source and Free Software: projects can't die. They can be put on hold, waiting for someone to pick them up, or they can be slowed down by a lack of eye-balls, but if they are good enough they can stay alive. Most important even when the biggest chief turns it's back on a project, like Richard Stallman did on GNUstep in favour of GNOME, it's not gonna wipe out the project.

The project is still alive. GNUstep is a project that has always lacked the exposure to the great wide public. The people working on it aren't very concerned with being visible, they want the best. They want the best cross platform application development environment. And that is probably their problem. They still see it as a Development Environment, while all the rest of the world is waiting for a Desktop Environment. Talking about a lack of communication!

And that made we wonder, while GNOME and KDE used the hype around Linux on the desktop to expose themselfs. GNUstep did not, who knows that Window Maker is actually the window manager of the GNUstep project? Who knows that GWorkspace.app is the file manager with the exact NeXT(tm) look-and-feel that fits within the entire Window Maker appearence?

I had imagined that the project would slowly die, but the opposite seems to happen. On April 8th the 1.0.0 version of the Foundation library (gnustep-base) was silently released, which means that the non-gui library is stable. Non of the major sites had the news in their headlines. Subprojects of GNUstep such as the Java(tm) bridge, GNUstepWeb, a WebObjects clone, and the database adaptors have passed their 1.0.0 release. The only parts still under 1.0.0 are the gui-parts.

And still GWorkspace.app is a graphical program, so is ProjectCenter and Gorm. There is even a game called Gomoku.app. And old projects that seemed dead for a long time are suddenly getting vivid again. GNUMail.app is suddenly under heavy development, GNULibrarian seems to get some attention for resurection. What is going on?

Is the failure of GNOME to wipe out KDE the reason? While Qt is already part of the open source licenses, why didn't all the GNUstep developers move to one of those two projects? Might it be that the environment of GNUstep is offering something, a future promise, to them? And if so what is it, that those people so eagerly try to accomplish what the other environments can not deliver?

OpenStep, the standard by Sun Microsystems and NeXT Computer (now part of Apple), defined a system written in Objective-C (Which is plain C with a few enhancements to make it object oriented). Resulting in a platform for application developement. This specification that is the core GNUstep, ofcourse adjusted to stay in sync with Mac OS X and to stay in tune with new insights and developments. Is now running on several Un*x flavours and on Windows.

At the same time Objective-C gives C programmers an easy path towards object oriented programming, while not forcing them to abandon their beloved C, and their programs. With some minor additions, C programs can be converted to Objective-C and ported to GNUstep. Everything is aimed at developer friendlyness.

So what this little group did was what NeXT tried and failed to do. They created a development environement that is cross-platform. The paradigma that every software developer wants to become true: Write Once, Compile Everywhere seems to be getting true. Applications developed for GNUstep can easily be recompiled to become Mac OS X cocoa applications, or with use of Cygwin and GNUstep be run on Windows.

And at the same time they developed a Desktop Environment with the clear and consistend NeXT(tm) look-and-feel.

Clear documentation about how to build your own GNUstep environment can be found in the GNUstep Build Guide, pay a visit to the GNUstep site or browse the GNUstep environment site. Or if you feel you should help them out, write a program, write documentation or just want to know how alive this project is, subscribe to one of the GNUstep mailinglists.