Re: ANN: One Step to GNUstep - pre-release version 0.9

[Ivan Vučica]

On 13. lip. 2011., at 20:43, Riccardo Mottola wrote:

> This whole thread that came out isn't what one would wish after releasing a 
> new thing (by repeating that the hard work is by Richard).
> But this is the typical GNUstep community. Hurrah.


I haven't had a chance to try out his work yet -- what I'm sure is that it's 
great, and that it'll help propagate GNUstep, free software and freedoms!

On 13. lip. 2011., at 20:49, Riccardo Mottola wrote:

> Hurrah. It's like people compaling that linux is not as Windows. If you want 
> an Apple, buy an Apple.
> I want GNUstep to be different than Apple in the things that I dislike... and 
> on par on on things which Ilike.
> And why not GNUstep can have extensions too.


Can't one have both?

Apple has done great work up until Snow Leopard, with the technology and with 
the user interface. It does not fit everyone's tastes. I personally think Xcode 
3.2.x is the pinnacle of Xcode development. So Xcode 4 does not fit my personal 
tastes either.

Everyone working on GNUstep is doing something marvelous. (Can I say 
"magical"?) I like Apple's technology. I like what they did up to Snow Leopard 
and Xcode 3.2. I can and will not pretend I dislike what they did. 

Why would it be wrong that I like GNUstep as well? Why would it be wrong that 
other people can work with the tech, without going to Apple? Why wouldn't I, in 
a year or two, decide I'd like to go back to a free platform? Why wouldn't I be 
able to release my code for Linux, BSD and OS X, but without worrying whether 
or not a particular part of the API will or will not work?

I may or may not like what Apple does in the next few years. I don't 
(currently) like Xcode 4. I want to contribute my code and my thoughts. I'm 
working on Zcode on an on-and-off basis - and that's my code contribution. What 
about my thoughts? My thoughts may match someone else's ideas in some segments. 
Does that make them less mine?

With that said -- does it really matter whether Objective-C 2.0 came from 
Apple? Does it matter that Apple contributed to clang? Does any of that truly 
matter if the software is free, and if a new generation of developers can be 
brought up... and if possible, taught on free software platforms about free 
software development, and why that is not wrong, but beneficial?

And if clang currently provides features that gcc 4.6 doesn't... should anyone 
feel offended in any way? Should anyone fight, should anyone be defensive? I 
don't think so. If people need the changes, if they feel the changes are 
important, they will be added to gcc 4.7.

And that is not important for "One Step to GNUstep". Important thing is whether 
target end-users can easily access GNUstep. And who should be the end users? In 
my personal opinion, developers who are investigating GNUstep either because of 
its freedoms, or even for technical reasons.

One may disagree on what is more important. But one cannot deny that "One Step 
to GNUstep" can only help in bringing more developers into the fold. 

That's what is important.

--
Ivan Vučica
ivan@vucica.net - http://ivan.vucica.net/