GNUSTEP

gnustep.org

GNUstep: What is it ?

• A powerful object-oriented development environment:

• A set of cross-platform libraries for developing applications (text, graphic, script, web, etc.)

• Development tools and applications

• A free implementation of the OpenStep specifications

• A community :-)

gnustep.org

Once upon a time...

• NeXT and SUN collaborated in 1994 to create an open API: OpenStep, extending on the famous NeXTSTEP environment and API

• Soon, SUN moved its focus on a new toy, and NeXT was brought by Apple in order to create MacOS X

• In the meantime, the Free Software Foundation started a free implementation of the OpenStep specification

gnustep.org

What’s interesting ?

• GNUstep is crossplatform (Linux, *BSDs, Windows, OSX...) and compatible with Cocoa (Apple)

• Objective-C is a really nice, simple yet powerful language, and you can transparently reuse C libraries (and soon with gcc 4, C++ libraries as well)

• You’ve got Distributed Objects for free !

• GNUstep provides really powerful development tools like GORM, that really speed-up the development

gnustep.org

Languages

• Objective-C is the main language

• but bindings exists for other languages:

• Java, Ruby, Scheme, Smalltalk

• with some work, existing Cocoa bindings for other languages like PyObjC (Python) and CocoaCamel (Perl) could be ported.. any volunteers ?

One-minute course on Objective-C

gnustep.org

Objective-C ??

• A strict superset of the ANSI C -- a dozen new keywords and only one syntactic addition

• Simply provides what’s needed to have real object-oriented features, not just class-oriented features: messages, late bindings, dynamic loading, introspection, categories, etc.

• Very inspired by Smalltalk !

• “When I invented the term Object-Oriented, I didn’t have C++ in mind” -- Alan Kay

gnustep.org

Interface

@interface MyObject : NSObject{ NSString* name;}- (NSString*) name;- (void) setName: (NSString*) str;+ (void) print: (id) anObject with: (NSString*) aMessage;@end

gnustep.org

Implementation

@implementation MyObject

- (NSString*) name { return name; }

- (void) setName: (NSString*) str { ASSIGN (name, str);}

+ (void) print: (id) anObject with: (NSString*) aMessage { NSLog (@”%@: %@”, aMessage, anObject);}

@end

gnustep.org

Usage

MyObject* anObject = [[MyObject alloc] init];

[anObject setName: @”Toto”];

[MyObject print: anObject withMessage: @”My object’s name is”];

My object’s name is: Toto

GNUstep components

gnustep.org

GNUstep’s Architecture

GNUstep – Overview, Stefan Urbanek, 2004

GNUstep Core

Hosting Operating System

(Linux, BSD, MS Windows, OS X, ...)

Foundation Kit

(Base)

GNUstep Architecture

Application Kit

(GUI)

GNUstep

Applications

Graphics

Backend

(Back)

Other Frameworks

Database Kit

StepTalk

Scripting

Web Deployment

...Native Graphics

System

Operating

System

Foreign

Legend

Bundle

Framework

Application

Slide level: Introduction

gnustep.org

GNUstep Frameworks

• Foundation

• AppKit

• GDL2: EOF 4.5 clone

• SQLClient

• GSWeb : WebObjects clone

• StepTalk : script engine

gnustep.org

Development process

GNUstep – Overview, Stefan Urbanek, 2004

Development Tools

Development Applications

Make Environment

(GNUstep-Make)

Gorm

Project Center

GNUstep Application Development Process

Application

Developer

User Interfaces

Source Code

Makefiles

Other Resources

(Images, Sounds,...)

GCC

Make

GNUstep

Foreign

Legend

Information

Slide level: Introduction

gnustep.org

ProjectCenter

• The GNUstep IDE

• Manage your project’s files (source code, images, etc.)

• Create the makefiles

• Give you a nice GUI to set up options..

gnustep.org

GORM

• At first glance, it’s just another GUI builder...

• ...with nice additions like guidelines, etc.

• But it’s much more than that : it’s really an object relation modeller

• a “gorm” file is the serialization of the object’s graph

• Check a video demo on http://www.gnustep.org/experience/DevelopmentDemonstration.html or come to the GNUstep booth/devroom for a demo

GNUstep Object Relationship Modeller

Related projects

gnustep.org

Frameworks

• Pantomime: mail management (pop3,imap,smtp..)

• NetClasses: asynchronous network library

• Addresses: address book management

• BookmarkKit: bookmark management

• Tryst: RendezVous implementation

• CameraKit: libgphoto wrapper

• SlideShowKit: includes slideshows in your application

• etc.

gnustep.org

Applications

• Not many apps for the moment (around sixty), but growing fast

• Even with so few applications, you can experience the interest of having applications really cooperating (check the live CD or go the booth for a demo)

• examples...

gnustep.org

Desktops !

• Different projects to create a desktop based on GNUstep libraries:

• Backbone : the goal is to implement a NeXTSTEP-like desktop

• Étoilé, Garma : wants to push the enveloppe :)

gnustep.org

LiveCD: GNUSTEP

• http://livecd.gnustep.org

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Unbenannt-2.indd

28.05.2004, 16:33

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Gallery

Future

gnustep.org

Future...

• Amelioration of the graphic backends (Cairo, OpenGL ...)

• A better Windows backend

• more GNUstep applications and desktop-related stuff

• Better integration with KDE/GNOME

gnustep.org