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Re: Cocoa everywhere?
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Re: Cocoa everywhere?

On May 2, 2004, at 3:06 AM, Mark Woollard wrote:

Could someone clarify what OpenStep Enterprise is? From what I've followed it allows NS apps to be built for Windows. But I also note the statement on the order form page that you can't use it for commercial apps - that would seem a bit of a constraint to me:-)

Openstep is several things with one name or slight variations on a name.

- Openstep is an open specification for the bulk of the API now known as Cocoa.
- Openstep for MACH is an operating system based on the Mach kernel and BSD 4.3, and it supports the Openstep API.
- Openstep for Intel is an operating system based on the Mach kernel and BSD 4.3, and it supports the Openstep API.
- Openstep Enterprise is the Openstep API implement on top of Windows NT/2000/XP instead of Mach and BSD 4.3. It consists of a few DLLs, a few services (Including Display postscript), and all the familiar tools, documentation, and examples.
- Cocoa is a superset (and subset in a few cases) of the Openstep API. Cocoa is built on top of Mach and BSD 4.4 a.k.a. Mac OS X.

For those still interested: WebObjects is a web application server built on top of the Openstep API, and it uses applications such as Project Builder, Interface Builder, EOModeler, and others that are also built on top of the Openstep API. The Openstep API is delivered in the form of DLLs and a few services for Windows. If you have certain versions of WebObjects installed on a Windows machine, you have everything you need to write new applications that use the Openstep API except that Apple specifically forbids that use of their DLLs in the Web Objects license.

Several companies, including my own, created successful commercial (usually vertical) Windows applications using Openstep APIs before Apple acquired NeXT. Apple promised to give away Openstep/Yellow Box for Windows runtime licenses for free as opposed to $500 to $5K+ NeXT charged. Then they promised to sell them for a small amount of money. Then they reneged on their many times repeated public commitments and refused to sell Openstep runtime licenses at any price. Well, actually, Apple is rumored to have signed some super secret reseller deals with a few companies that I can not possibly name, but there is always a catch. I suspect, and I am only guessing, that the company selling Openstep licenses either got their licenses as part of some non-commercial deal, or they signed an agreement saying that "they" could develop commercial applications, but none of the sub-licensies could use the software to develop commercial applications. You see, even with Apple's own Web Objects product, there is nothing sopping their customers from developing new commercial software with the full featured Openstep tools (I mean Web Objects Tools) except that Apple's license forbids it. It makes you think.
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References: 
 >Re: Cocoa everywhere? (From: Stefan Pantke <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Cocoa everywhere? (From: Mark Woollard <email@hidden>)



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