🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bt8A6G.JuI@world.std.com> gsk@world.std.com (Geoffrey S Knauth)  
writes:
> Would you like to see free objects, libraries, palettes, toolkits,
> etc., from the Free Software Foundation?
Well, yes, but there are several parts to the problem:

1) The GNU ObjC runtime is being written by Cygnus.  Maybe end of the year  
availability?  This should be compatible with both NeXT and Stepstone.  Nothing  
else will be very useful until this is done.

2) NeXT, Stepstone, and other interested parties (Borland?)need to DEFINE (in  
some politically correct Open Forum :-) the essential Foundation classes they  
will cooperate on.  NeXT will modify it's shipping product to include them, and  
StepStone will build its ICPak 101 on top of them.

3) Someone needs to write/donate the appropriate Foundation classes (primarily  
Object, List, Storage, and Hash) to GNU for including with GCC (2.4?)

Until this happens, there is no meaningful 'object market' in Objective-C.   
Once this foundation is in place, and available outside of the NeXT community.   
Things can really start taking off.

Note that this really only means objects and libraries.  Pallettes and Toolkits  
are entirely NeXT-specific entities, and (as proprieatry systems) outside of  
GNU's domain of interest [I suspect].  However, 'kernel' functionality is  
ultimately the most important aspect of a portable program.  This is precisely  
why Bruce Webster wrote a marvelous letter urging NeXT to do the same thing I  
described above, except in a commercial rather than FSF form.

I would dearly love to know what NeXT (et al) are thinking along these lines.   
I've been harping on this theme [perhaps we should forward to c.s.n.a] for over  
a year, and NeXTs direction is still somewhat vague.  Hopefully they'll reach a  
decision on this soon.

Objectively yours, ;-0
-Ernie P.
--
Ernest N. Prabhakar                  Caltech High Energy Physics
Member, League for Programming Freedom (league@prep.ai.mit.edu)
CaJUN President        NeXTMail:ernest@pundit.cithep.caltech.edu
"...and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake." - II Cor 4:5b
#import <std/disclaimer.h>