Gregory John Casamento wrote:
As many of you may have heard, there is a rumor floating around which indicates
that Apple is considering reviving YellowBox, under the codename "Dharma."
We have had an opportunity up until now to port applications from Cocoa to
Windows using GNUstep. If Apple comes out with YellowBox, that door will be
vitually closed to us as people will naturally go to Apple for that solution.
If we can beat Apple to it and get a viable system going on Windows prior to
Apple's release of Dharma/YellowBox, that could be a major coup for GNUstep.
The need for a more complete environment on Windows
===================================================
Now that Gorm is working properly under Windows, it's time to start thinking
about bringing some of the other apps over as well.
ProjectCenter
-------------
A significant blocker to getting ProjectCenter working on Windows at the moment
is the fact that it uses frameworks.
I believe that ProjectCenter should use libraries for greater portability,
until it becomes possible for users to build using frameworks on Windows.
I'm not sure this is the way to go. I think we can get better framework support
on windows in the near term with some dedicated effort which would provide a
bigger payoff than re-factoring PC to use bundles/libraries.
At the momement, we have findframeworks() added. That gives us the run-time
support required to locate the shared library code and load it.
So I see the problem as really being about "building".
Windows Theme
-------------
We need to get a windows theme prepared so that GUI will blend in better with
Windows applications. Also, we need to make it so that menus are attached to
the windows and not free floating.
Yes, this is very important and I'm currently working on it.
My view on Menus is that we should separate menu handling between -gui and
-back. The idea being that NeXT-style menus are alien not only to windows but
GNOME and KDE as well. Then there are those who wish to experiment with
circular menus etc.
One other thing that is needed is another installer which allows the user to
install these applications without needing to compile them.
Umm.. maybe not? Once an application is compiled and prepared for distribution
it should run from where-ever it is.
If the application is complex enough to require installation into separate
areas (such as shared frameworks) then we should be using conventional windows
installers.
These are just some thoughts I've been having along these lines... if anyone
has anything to add, please let me know.
There are still many bugs/issues...
* Pop-up menus are slow, don't scroll
* Focus bugs
* Apps compiled to run in Console sub-system rather than GUI
* problems running modal panels
* imaging compositing
* icon in taskbar
and so on.
Regards,
Sheldon
_______________________________________________
Gnustep-dev mailing list
Gnustep-dev@gnu.org
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnustep-dev
