GNUstep - A free implementation of the OpenStep standard

GNUstep provides an Object-Oriented application development framework and toolset for use on a wide variety of computer platforms. GNUstep is based on the original OpenStep specification provided by NeXT, Inc. (now Apple).

GNUstep is written in Objective-C, an object-oriented superset of the C programming language, similar to SmallTalk. However there exist a number of brigdes and interfaces to develop GNUstep programs using other languages like JAVA or Ruby.

The GNUstep Core System

The GNUstep core system consists of the following parts:

gnustep-make

A set of scripts and makefiles that heavily ease the creation and maintenance of software projects.

gnustep-base

The FoundationKit libraries for non-GUI tools providing everything from string and array classes, filemanager classes to distributed objects.

gnustep-gui

The ApplicationKit containing widgets, workspace classes and means for applications to interact with the user. This is the frontend of GNUstep's GUI part.

gnustep-back

This is the backend of GNUstep's GUI part which does the actual rendering and event handling. It acts as a layer between gnustep-gui and the operating/drawing system. Backends exist for X11 (one using libart, one using xlib drawing) and win32.

Apart from the above, there exist a number of addon libraries, like Renaissance which allows developers to specify an application's user interface in xml. For database access, there is gdl2 - the GNUstep Database Library. Please refer to the GNUstep website for more information.

GNUstep is self-containing. That means that all GNUstep applications, tools, libraries and add-ons are installed into the GNUstep directory hierarchy. There are four domains which are searched for files: the System domain, which should only contain the core system files, the Local domain which stores all that has later been installed on the system, the Network domain which should be used for importing data from a remote system, and the User domain which resides in the user's home directory (mostly ~/GNUstep). See the filesystem.texi document for more information.

Some Basic Terms:

Tools and Applications

In the world of GNUstep the term tool refers to command line programs whereas applications are fully fledged GUI programs. Naturally, tools reside in the domains' Tools folder, applications can be found in the domains' Applications folder.

Applications are either launched using the openapp command or from the Workspace.

Services

In GNUstep applications globally offer functionality to other applications through services application's main menu. Apart from services offered by applications, there may be programs whose sole purpose is the offering of services. They can be found in the domains' Libary/Services folders.

The Workspace

The central place of the user interface is the Workspace or Workspace Manager which acts as an interface between the user and parts of the system like files, processes, etc. The GWorkspace application provides this functionality in GNUstep. See the GWorkspace website for more details.

Getting More Help

Most discussion and support is taking place on the GNUstep mailinglists <http://www.gnustep.org/information/gethelp.html>. Additionally, most larger projects have their own mailing lists. Consult the appropriate websites for details.

Alternatively you are invited to join the #GNUstep IRC channel on FreeNode (irc.freenode.net).

gcc(1), gdnc(1), gdomap(8), gopen(1), gpbs(1), make(1), openapp(1)

GNUstep Websites:

Official GNUstep website <http://www.gnustep.org/> - GNUstep Wiki (lots of useful information) <http://wiki.gnustep.org/> - GNUstep Project Page <http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnustep/> - GNUstep Community Page <http://www.gnustep.net/> - GNUstep Documentation Library <http://gnustep.made-it.com/> - GNUstep Build Guide <http://gnustep.made-it.com/BuildGuide/>

Collaboration World <http://www.collaboration-world.com/> - GNUstep.de <http://www.gnustep.de/> - GNUstep.it <http://www.gnustep.it/> - GNUstep.us <http://www.gnustep.us/> - GWorkspace Website <http://www.gnustep.it/enrico/gworkspace/>

Mailinglists:

<http://www.gnu.org/software/gnustep/information/gethelp.html> - Archives can be found at <http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/>

GNUstep is developed and maintained by a large number of people. Please see <http://www.gnustep.org/developers/whoiswho.html> for a list.

GWorkspace is developed by Enrico Sersale. Please see the GWorkspace Website for details.

This man page was written by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com>.