NAME¶
GNUstep - A free implementation of the OpenStep standard
DESCRIPTION¶
GNUstep provides an Object-Oriented application development framework and
toolset for use on a wide variety of computer platforms.
GNUstep is
based on the original OpenStep specification provided by NeXT, Inc. (now
Apple).
GNUstep is written in Objective-C, an object-oriented superset of the C
programming language, similar to SmallTalk. However there exist a number of
brigdes and interfaces to develop
GNUstep programs using other
languages like JAVA or Ruby.
The
GNUstep core system consists of the following parts, which are
jointly refered to as
gnustep-core :
- gnustep-make
- A set of scripts and makefiles that heavily ease the creation and
maintenance of software projects.
- gnustep-base
- The FoundationKit libraries for non-GUI tools providing everything from
string and array classes, filemanager classes to distributed objects.
- gnustep-gui
- The ApplicationKit containing widgets, workspace classes and means for
applications to interact with the user. This is the frontend of
GNUstep's GUI part.
- gnustep-back
- This is the backend of GNUstep's GUI part which does the actual
rendering and event handling. It acts as a layer between gnustep-gui and
the operating/drawing system. Backends exist for X11 (one using cairo, one
using libart, one using xlib drawing) and win32.
Apart from the above, there exist a number of addon libraries, like
Renaissance which allows developers to specify an application's user
interface in xml. For database access, there is
GDL2 - the GNUstep
Database Library. Please refer to the
GNUstep website for more
information.
GNUstep per default is self-contained. That means that all
GNUstep
applications, tools, libraries and add-ons are installed into the
GNUstep directory hierarchy. However as of
gnustep-make-2.0.0 it
is also possible to install everything in compliance with other filesystem
hierarchies. See the
FilesystemLayouts directory in the source package
of
gnustep-make for more information.
There are four domains which are searched for files: the System domain, which
should only contain the core system files, the Local domain which stores all
that has later been installed on the system, the Network domain which should
be used for importing data from a remote system, and the User domain which
resides in the user's home directory (mostly
~/GNUstep).
A complete description of the default
GNUstep layout can be found in the
filesystem.pdf.
In the world of GNUstep the term
tool refers to command line programs
whereas
applications are fully fledged GUI programs. Naturally,
tools reside in the domains' Tools folder,
applications can be
found in the domains' Applications folder.
Applications are either launched using the
openapp command or from the
Workspace.
SERVICES¶
In
GNUstep applications globally offer functionality to other
applications through
services. They can be reached through the Services
menu entry in an application's main menu. Apart from
services offered
by applications, there may be programs whose sole purpose is the offering of
services. They can be found in the domains' Libary/Services folders.
The
make_services tool makes sure the services are known to other
applications when a application is newly installed.
BUNDLES¶
A bundle is a collection of resources making up a discrete package for use.
There are currently three types of bundles: applications, frameworks and
loadable bundles.
A loadable bundle is a kind of plug-in. There are two types of loadable bundles,
namely plug-ins and palettes. The plug-in is noramlly refered to as a bundle,
which can make it a bit confusing. A plug-in is a bundle that can be loaded by
an application to provide additional functionality, while a palette is a
plug-in for
GORM, the interface builder. A palette is used to extend
GORM with custom UI objects. Palettes have a
.palette extension.
THE WORKSPACE¶
The central place of the user interface is the
Workspace or
Workspace
Manager which acts as an interface between the user and parts of the
system like files, processes, etc. The GWorkspace application provides this
functionality in GNUstep. See the GWorkspace website for more details.
DEVELOPER APPLICATIONS¶
What would a development environment be without the applications to create
applications? The applications provided by GNUstep for Rapid Application
Development are:
- GORM
- GORM is the interface modeler. With GORM you can quickly
create the graphical interface of your application.
- Project Center
- Project Center is the program where you can develop your program.
It offers you automatic generation of GNUmakefiles , project
maintenance and of course a code editor.
SEE ALSO¶
gcc(1),
gdnc(1),
gdomap(8),
gopen(1),
gpbs(1),
make(1),
openapp(1)
GNUstep Websites:
- http://www.gnustep.org/
- Official GNUstep website
- http://wiki.gnustep.org/
- GNUstep Wiki (lots of useful information)
- http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnustep/
- GNUstep Project Page
- http://gnustep.made-it.com/
- GNUstep Documentation Library
- http://www.collaboration-world.com
- Collaboration World, the home of GNUmail
- http://www.gnustep.it/
- The home of GWorkspace, JIGS, Renaissance and programming tutorials.
Mailinglists
- http://www.gnustep.org/information/gethelp.html
- Mailing lists and mailing list archives.
IRC
- #GNUstep on FreeNode
- You are invited to join the #GNUstep IRC channel on FreeNode
(irc.freenode.net).
HISTORY¶
GNUstep was at first a collaboration of two projects that wanted to
create a single
GNUstep project that complied to the OpenStep
specification provided by NeXT Computer, Inc. and SunSoft, Inc. Development of
this joint effort started around 1993-1994. For a more detailed history
description see the GNUstep Documentation Library referenced in the
SEE
ALSO section.
GNUstep is developed and maintained by a large number of people. Please see
<
http://www.gnustep.org/developers/whoiswho.html> for a list.
AUTHORS¶
This man-page was first written by Martin Brecher
<martin@mb-itconsulting.com> in august of 2003.
In December 2007 it was expanded by Dennis Leeuw <dleeuw@made-it.com> and
made to comply with the gnustep-make-2.0.x releases.