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Gnustep




  Caption GNUstep screenshot showing various applications developed with the GNUstep libraries
  Developer GNUstep Developers
  Latest Release Version make 201, base 1140, gui & back 0120
  Latest Release Date April 15 2007 (make May 25 2007 )
  Operating System Cross-platform
  Genre Desktop Environment
  License GPL and LGPL website = gnusteporg


GNUstep is a Free Software implementation of NeXT 's OpenStep Objective-C libraries (called ''frameworks''), Widget Toolkit , and application development tools not only for Unix-like Operating System s, but also for Microsoft Windows . It is part of the GNU Project .

GNUstep features a cross-platform, object-oriented development environment based on and completely compatible with the OpenStep specification developed by to remain compatible. The roots of the GNUstep application interface are same as the roots of Cocoa: NeXT and OpenStep. GNUstep predates Cocoa.


HISTORY


GNUstep began when Paul Kunz and others at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center wanted to port HippoDraw from NEXTSTEP to another platform. Instead of rewriting HippoDraw from scratch and reusing only the application design, they decided to rewrite the NeXTSTEP Object layer which the application depended on. This was the first version of ''libobjcX''. It enabled them to port HippoDraw to Unix systems running the X Window System without changing a single line of their application source. After the OpenStep specification was released to the public in 1994 , they decided to write a new ''objcX'' which would adhere to the new APIs. The software would become known as "GNUstep".


PARADIGMS


GNUstep is modeled somewhat on OPENSTEP, NeXT's implementation of the OpenStep API , and thus inherits some design principles proposed in OPENSTEP as well as the Objective-C language.


APPLICATIONS

There are several applications built for/upon GNUstep. For example the e-mail client GNUMail , which can also run on Mac OS X. Or the application server GNUstepWeb .


CLASS CAPABILITIES



Foundation Kit


  • strings

  • collections (arrays, sets, dictionaries) and enumerators

  • file management

  • object archiving

  • advanced date manipulation

  • distributed objects and inter-process communication

  • URL handling

  • notifications (and distributed notifications)

  • easy multi-threading

  • timers

  • locks

  • exception handling



Application Kit


  • user interface elements (table views, browsers, matrices, scroll views)

  • graphics (WYSIWYG, postscript-like graphics, bezier paths, image handling with multiple representations, graphical contexts)

  • color management (calibrated vs. device colors; CMYK, RGB, HSB, gray and named color representations; alpha transparency)

  • text system features: rich text format, text attachments, layout manager, typesetter, rules, paragraph styles, font management, spelling

  • document management

  • printing features: print operations, print panel and page layout

  • help manager

  • pasteboard (aka clip board) services

  • spell checker

  • workspace bindings for applications

  • drag and drop operations

  • Services sharing among applications



REFERENCES



SEE ALSO




EXTERNAL LINKS