Re: Rumor Mill: Apple Considering Revival of YellowBox (??)

[Sheldon Gill]

Gregory John Casamento wrote:
> As many of you may have heard, there is a rumor floating around which indicates
> that Apple is considering reviving YellowBox, under the codename "Dharma."
>
> We have had an opportunity up until now to port applications from Cocoa to
> Windows using GNUstep.   If Apple comes out with YellowBox, that door will be
> vitually closed to us as people will naturally go to Apple for that solution.
>
> If we can beat Apple to it and get a viable system going on Windows prior to
> Apple's release of Dharma/YellowBox, that could be a major coup for GNUstep.
>
> The need for a more complete environment on Windows
> ===================================================
>
> Now that Gorm is working properly under Windows, it's time to start thinking
> about bringing some of the other apps over as well.
>
> ProjectCenter
> -------------
> A significant blocker to getting ProjectCenter working on Windows at the moment
> is the fact that it uses frameworks.
>
> I believe that ProjectCenter should use libraries for greater portability,
> until it becomes possible for users to build using frameworks on Windows.

I'm not sure this is the way to go. I think we can get better framework support 
on windows in the near term with some dedicated effort which would provide a 
bigger payoff than re-factoring PC to use bundles/libraries.

At the momement, we have findframeworks() added. That gives us the run-time 
support required to locate the shared library code and load it.

So I see the problem as really being about "building".

> Windows Theme
> -------------
> We need to get a windows theme prepared so that GUI will blend in better with
> Windows applications.  Also, we need to make it so that menus are attached to
> the windows and not free floating.

Yes, this is very important and I'm currently working on it.

My view on Menus is that we should separate menu handling between -gui and 
-back. The idea being that NeXT-style menus are alien not only to windows but 
GNOME and KDE as well. Then there are those who wish to experiment with 
circular menus etc.

> One other thing that is needed is another installer which allows the user to
> install these applications without needing to compile them.

Umm.. maybe not?  Once an application is compiled and prepared for distribution 
it should run from where-ever it is.

If the application is complex enough to require installation into separate 
areas (such as shared frameworks) then we should be using conventional windows 
installers.

> These are just some thoughts I've been having along these lines...  if anyone
> has anything to add, please let me know.

There are still many bugs/issues...

  * Pop-up menus are slow, don't scroll
  * Focus bugs
  * Apps compiled to run in Console sub-system rather than GUI
  * problems running modal panels
  * imaging compositing
  * icon in taskbar

and so on.


Regards,
Sheldon