Re: Changing gui->AppKit, base->Foundation... etc...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi
> Conduct an experiment for yourself:  Pretend you're a novice user who
> knows nothing about GNUstep and try to get things working relying on
> the information you have at your disposal on the website.  Better yet,
> get a friend who is a developer, but not familiar with GNUstep to set
> it up.   That should illustrate to you just how daunting a task we
> have set before our audience.
>    
I do that from time to time, including making a "from scratch" 
installation of gnustep to see that everything works. It is not as bad 
as it seems, but admitted the website is unclear in several places and 
contradicts sometimes itself.
I will try to amend the website in the next days, piece after piece.

However I do not hing that changing the names will help at all! The 
current names are clear.
If somebody takes the time to install gnustep, he will read the guide, 
will try to be smart and work it out. He will face most probably 
problems with dependencies, configuration and linking the first time he 
tries. Changing the names of the libraries/frameworks won't help him there.

Somebody wanting to try out everything in 5mins is already on the bad 
route and won't be helped by a rename. He will anyway just try hammering 
things and then either giving up or bashing gnustep. If he reads the 
documentation it will be only after he made a mess...

Targeting such kind of developers means giving them a ready product. SO 
either he can get working packages for his operating systems or we 
provide him a controlled, ready distribution.

AS I discussed with you privately, my idea of doing that is
* a Live CD: but working, with all applications and geared at showing of 
what we an do and be enough for a "5 minute test". Not a "GNUstep 
distribution. Gurkan's first LiveCD generated quite some interest, sadly 
further released were shadowed by bad configuration, bad choices and 
just "left outs" which made it ridiculous and even negative for us
* a working, ready to use virtual image for VritualBox, VMWare or such. 
This could deliver a working, ready-to use environment where a developer 
can try hello world and a user launch the GShisen and play a game.

Especially for developers I thing the VM image could be interesting. He 
could try out GNUstep on Mac or Windows... in a controlled environment. 
If he likes it he can then install it on his own platform.

It is of course a lot of work. I volunteer to make the first VM image. I 
call for help for maintaining it and also for developing a Live CD. I 
will ask Richard Stonehouse for help, we had a discussion about this 
months ago.


I think thus that renaming is essentially useless and even 
counterproductive since it adds confusion to existing systems without 
gaining anything. Especially for "gui" and "back". I think "Base" is 
perhaps more suited for Foundation. (also if we thing about core 
foundation).

Riccardo