Re: Cocoa/Windows parallel dvlpmt

[Gregory John Casamento]

--- Florent Pillet <florent.pillet@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> On 4 fivr. 04, at 15:42, Philip Mvtteli wrote:
> 
> >> I'd go farther than that.
> >
> > Could you please repeat that and send a copy to P. C. D. Robert? I 
> > can't remember all the names, that already publically said, that they 
> > are interested in a Windows port of GS. But it needs to be more 
> > evolved. P.C.D. Robert seems to constantly censore such statements. 
> > Perhaps we have to make a mail bomb that it gets into his mail box?
> 
> There is no need for a mail bomb. Philippe may not see the point in a 
> good Windows port of GNUStep, but maybe he is ignoring the large number 
> of Mac OS X developers who are starving for a Cocoa equivalent on 
> Windows.
> 
> Now there are a few things about GS that need to be very clear:
> 
> - NeXT having been absorbed by Apple (though some will say that it 
> happened the other way round :-)), the new baseline OpenStep APIs are 
> Cocoa. Any attempt to ignore this fact will lead to Cocoa developers 
> turning away from GNUStep. Let me repeat that: OpenStep is history. 
> Cocoa is the new specification. Hence, GS should at least provide the 
> equivalence to the N-1 version of Cococa (ie currently offer the set of 
> APIs that were in Jaguar would be deemed acceptable by developers).

Agree 110%.

> - A Windows port would be the major selling point for most Cocoa 
> developers. Especially the ones who develop Cocoa applications for a 
> living. I would classify the interest in porting applications to Linux 
> as marginal right now, though Linux compatibility would be a good side 
> effect of people using GS to port to Windows.

Difficult to do, but agreed.

> - To get more developers on the project, people who know the project 
> intimately need to produce some architectural documents and at least a 
> pretty exhaustive document that lists what works, what doesn't, class 
> by class and method by method. This is about the only efficient way 
> someone (like me, for example) could dive into GS and say "ok I need to 
> implement this to get my stuff to work".

A very true statement.  Documentation is essential.

> - I think that the look and feel issue needn't to be overlooked. As 
> Alex mentioned it, people must overcome their own personal taste and 
> realize that in any given platform, the only acceptable way of 
> displaying the UI is by respecting the platform look and feel.

We must get GNUstep at least *working* on Windows before making the necessary
changes to make it UI friendly.

Stability first, beauty second.

> - Finally, I think that some effort should be done towards a less 
> emotional communication. I can frankly say that reading long flaming 
> threads between people in the discuss-gnustep archives is something 
> that makes one colder about helping the project...

Very true.  We've had a few of those lately.

> Florent
> 

Later, GJC

=====
Gregory John Casamento -- CEO/President Open Logic Corp.
-- bheron on #gnustep, #linuxstep, & #gormtalk ---------------- 
Please sign the petition against software patents at: 
http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html 
-- Maintainer of Gorm (featured in April Linux Journal) -------

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html