NAME

       GNUstep - A free implementation of the OpenStep standard

DESCRIPTION

       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 consists of the following parts, which are jointly refered to as gnustep-core :

       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 cairo, 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 per default is self-contained. That means that all GNUstep  applications,  tools,  libraries  and
       add-ons  are  installed into the GNUstep directory hierarchy. However as of gnustep-make-2.0.0 it is also
       possible to install everything in compliance with other filesystem hierarchies. See the FilesystemLayouts
       directory in the source package of gnustep-make for more information.

       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).

       A complete description of the default GNUstep layout can be found in the filesystem.pdf.

   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.  They can be
       reached  through  the  Services  menu entry in an 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  make_services  tool  makes  sure  the services are known to other applications when a application is
       newly installed.

   BUNDLES
       A bundle is a collection of resources making up a discrete package for use.  There  are  currently  three
       types of bundles: applications, frameworks and loadable bundles.

       A  loadable  bundle  is  a  kind of plug-in. There are two types of loadable bundles, namely plug-ins and
       palettes. The plug-in is noramlly refered to as a bundle, which can make it a bit confusing. A plug-in is
       a  bundle  that can be loaded by an application to provide additional functionality, while a palette is a
       plug-in for GORM, the interface builder. A palette is  used  to  extend  GORM  with  custom  UI  objects.
       Palettes have a .palette extension.

   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.

   DEVELOPER APPLICATIONS
       What would a development environment be without the applications to create applications? The applications
       provided by GNUstep for Rapid Application Developement are:

       GORM   GORM is the interface modeler. With GORM you can quickly create the graphical  interface  of  your
              application.

       Project Center
              Project  Center  is  the  program  where  you  can  develop  your program. It offers you automatic
              generation of GNUmakefiles , project maintenance and of course a code editor.

SEE ALSO

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

       GNUstep Websites:

       http://www.gnustep.org/
              Official GNUstep website

       http://wiki.gnustep.org/
              GNUstep Wiki (lots of useful information)

       http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnustep/
              GNUstep Project Page

       http://gnustep.made-it.com/
              GNUstep Documentation Library

       http://www.collaboration-world.com
              Collaboration World, the home of GNUmail

       http://www.gnustep.it/
              The home of GWorkspace, JIGS, Renaissance and programming tutorials.

       Mailinglists

       http://www.gnustep.org/information/gethelp.html
              Mailing lists and mailing list archives.

       IRC

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

HISTORY

       GNUstep was at first a collaboration of two projects that wanted to create a single GNUstep project  that
       complied  to  the OpenStep specification provided by NeXT Computer, Inc. and SunSoft, Inc. Development of
       this joint effort started around 1993-1994. For a more  detailed  history  description  see  the  GNUstep
       Documentation Library referenced in the SEE ALSO section.

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

AUTHORS

       This man-page was first written by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com> in august of 2003.

       In December 2007 it was expanded by Dennis  Leeuw  <dleeuw@made-it.com>  and  made  to  comply  with  the
       gnustep-make-2.0.x releases.