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 Development 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.

gnustep-core                                       15/12/2007                                         GNUstep(7)