This isn't precisely what I meant. Allow me to elaborate...

When I wrote the Xcode library for buildtool (see dev-libs and dev-apps) I
wrote a meta-tool called plpcg (property list class parser generator). The
purpose of plpcg is to parse the Xcode pbxproj file and, from that,
generate objc classes which can then be used to deserialize the data.  The
tool allowed me to, by using many example project files, get a full picture
of how an Xcode file is structured and then allowed me to discern function
in some cases and fill in behavior.

The plpcg tool is used to progressively build up the Xcode library until it
becomes complete.   Every time an unknown element is found in a project
file plpcg.

What I was thinking about was a similar tool for analyzing the differences
between GNUstep and different releases of the API. By parsing the headers
of Cocoa and those of GNUstep into a set of data structures that can then
be compared we can determine the gap between the current release of GNUstep
and a given release of Cocoa.   The data generated from this tool could be
used to generate skeletons for the missing classes as well.

I apologize for the vagueness of my previous post and I hope this more
fully explains what I was thinking of. :)

Greg

On Friday, September 13, 2013, Luboš Doležel wrote:

>  Absolutely.  Allowing the code to compile and printing warnings when a
> missing method is called would be very helpful.
>
> Dne 13. září 2013 2:01:01 Gregory Casamento ** napsal:
>
> One of the ways I approached the Xcode library implementation (a library
> in GNUstep which interprets xcodeproj files and builds them) was to analyze
> what was missing and generate skeletons for those things that were not
> present.  I'm wondering if a similar approach might not be practical here
> as well.
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 2:03 PM, Muhammad Hussein Nasrollahpour <
> iapplechocol...@me.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Sep 12, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Doc O'Leary <
>> drole...@5usenet2013.subsume.com> wrote:
>>
>> > In article <mailman.1962.1379003464.10748.discuss-gnus...@gnu.org>,
>> > Doug Simons <doug.sim...@testplant.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Sep 12, 2013, at 4:03 AM, David Chisnall wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> We could almost certainly provide them with an automated tool that
>> they can
>> >>> run on their codebase that would give them a pretty clear idea of the
>> OS X
>> >>> APIs that they use.  Actually, providing such a tool with the ability
>> to
>> >>> produce a report against the current version of GNUstep showing what
>> is
>> >>> missing would be very helpful for a lot of projects.
>> >>
>> >> If such a tool could be produced, I think it would be a tremendous
>> asset for
>> >> GNUstep. I suspect there are plenty of developers of applications for
>> OS X
>> >> who would be interested in porting to GNUstep but are put off by the
>> daunting
>> >> task involved in making the effort, especially knowing that there are
>> almost
>> >> certainly some things missing but not knowing how extensive those gaps
>> might
>> >> be.
>> >
>> > I disagree.  What you want to do is engage developers as much as
>> > possible with as little effort as possible.  Don't give them a tool that
>> > has them holding GNUstep at arms length like a stinky diaper.  Instead,
>> > you have to make the porting effort less daunting from the get-go.  Or,
>> > rather, make the effort in line with the reward.  Like Graham said, many
>> > developers won't be bothered with even zero effort mainly, I think,
>> > because they expect zero reward.
>>
>> Completely agree. We shouldn't engage developers in a lot of effort.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Gregory Casamento
> Open Logic Corporation, Principal Consultant
> yahoo/skype: greg_casamento, aol: gjcasa
> (240)274-9630 (Cell)
> http://www.gnustep.org
> http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
>
>
> --
> Gregory Casamento
> Open Logic Corporation, Principal Consultant
> yahoo/skype: greg_casamento, aol: gjcasa
> (240)274-9630 (Cell)
> http://www.gnustep.org
> http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
>
>

-- 
Gregory Casamento
Open Logic Corporation, Principal Consultant
yahoo/skype: greg_casamento, aol: gjcasa
(240)274-9630 (Cell)
http://www.gnustep.org
http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
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