OpenOffice OS-X Port and GNUstep

[stefan]

Hello,

I have read your notice about cancellation of OO.org OSX port at:

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/timeline.html

I would like to ask, if you have considered GNUstep before making the
conclusion?

http://www.gnustep.org

"GNUstep is a cross-platform, object-oriented framework for desktop application
development. Based on the OpenStep specification originally created by NeXT
(now Apple)..."

GNUstep tries to maintain Cocoa compatibility where possible and desired (mainly
in FoundationKit [1] and ApplicationKit [2]). There are already projects that
work with both environments (Cocoa and GNUstep) and there are planned ports of
others from Cocoa to GNUstep and vice versa.

GNUstep is graphical-backend independent. that means that, for examepl, on Linux
it uses X or FB (under development), on Windows it uses native GUI. For OSX you
just link the application with OSX native libraries/frameworks instead of
GNUstep, roughly said.

Moreover, if you lacked developers for your OSX port, then you can gain more if
you would use GNUstep as a development/temporary platform for the port. Why?
Because then the developers-porters do not have to have OSX for the process of
porting, Linux or any other platform would be sufficient.

What do you think about making some elaboration, whether it would be worth
giving GNUstep a try?

Best regards,

Stefan Urbanek

References:

[1] Base library API
http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/Developer/Base/Reference/index.html
[2] GUI library API
http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/Developer/Gui/Reference/index.html