Re: Cross-platform Cocoa: NOT a pipe dream.
Re: Cross-platform Cocoa: NOT a pipe dream.
- Subject: Re: Cross-platform Cocoa: NOT a pipe dream.
- From: Alex Perez <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 15:35:50 -0700 (PDT)
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004, James Bucanek wrote:
[snip]
> But it did get me to thinking. How much of Obj-C and the NextStep
> framework is portable to Intel processors? It would really be nice to
> maintain a single Obj-C code base with all of the business logic --
> should I actually develop a brain tumor and decide to port it to
> Windows.
This is possible (and done by numerous people today) see below. It is not
a pipe dream.
> I thought the Obj-C compiler was cross platform. So at the very least, I could recompile the application and roll my own NS... objects (I don't use that many -- the part of the application that I'd want to port has no GUI and very little Mac-specific code).
Objective-C support has been a standard part of GCC (Formerly known as the
GNU C Compiler) for a long time now (well over 10 years, AFAIR). No need
to roll your own NS, people have already done this for you. See below.
> I also thought that all of the NS... framework came from Next, which ran
> on Intel processors originally. But I don't know if the current NS...
> framework is available for Intel or is open source, nor do I know how
> much it relies on Darwin.
Not originally.....it originally ran on custom black Motorola 68K 040 NeXT
hardware, but was later ported to Intel arch when NeXT ran into financial
troubles in the late 90s. Apple's framework is closed source, and likely
always will be. But that's not an obstacle, see below....
I have one word for you: GNUstep. There's a windows GUI front end which
works but isn't done by any means. Apple will never resusitate Yellow Box
for any reason, since it is not compatible with their current business
model (selling nice but expensive hardware).
We welcome any and all Cocoa developers who are interested in porting
their apps from Cocoa to check out GNUstep, because it's the only way
they're ever ging to get what they want. GNUstep is not 100% cocoa
compatible, but it is exceedingly similar due to its' common ancestry, and
we do make some efforts to keep up with certain aspects of Cocoa
evolution, such as NSKeyedArchiver, NSToolbar, etc.
There's a binary GNUstep-base (Foundation) installer for Windows, which
you can download from the front page of GNUstep.org. As of now there is
no binary installer which includes AppKit, but that's in the process of
being fixed. This is currently the state because the volunteer who makes
the windows installer for GNUstep-base (Foundation) each release does not
have a need for GUI features of GNUstep, as he only has a commercial use
for Foundation.
I urge you to check out what's going on at GNUstep.org, #GNUstep on
irc.freenode.net, or email@hidden. There's also a GMANE feed of
discuss-gnustep and gnustep-dev for those who prefer NNTP newsfeeds.
Cheers, Alex Perez
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