GNUstepWiki - User contributions [en]

ObjC2 FAQ

2015-11-29T14:05:08Z

Thebeing: ObjC2 FAQ moved to Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ

#redirect [[Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ]]

Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ

2015-11-29T14:05:08Z

Thebeing: ObjC2 FAQ moved to Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ

== Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ ==

An Objective-C implementation comes in two components:
* '''Compiler''' - responsible for parsing the source code and produces a binary that contains calls to the functions in the runtime library
* '''Runtime Library''' - responsible for things like message sending and introspection

=== How Many Runtimes Are there? ===
----------------------------

If you have used Objective-C on Mac OS X, then you will have used one or both of Apple's two Objective-C runtimes. The Apple legacy runtime is based on the version implemented by NeXT back in the '80s, although it has seen some improvements since that time and is often referred to as the NeXT runtime. Apple's modern runtime is a complete rewrite, introduced with OS X 10.5. The modern runtime is required for modern Objective-C features such as properties, fast enumeration, or ARC (automated reference counting) and is the default on 64-bit platforms. The first set of new features (properties, dot-notation, fast enumeration, garbage collection) was originally marketed by Apple as ‘Objective-C 2’, even though the last version shipped by NeXT was actually Objective-C 4.

The implementation of Objective-C produced by NeXT was based on GCC and as such NeXT was required to release the relevant compiler changes. The NeXT Objective-C runtime was not open sourced (it was later, after Apple bought NeXT, but the code is not particularly portable and so is not used on platforms other than Darwin) and so the GNU project created a new one, generally referred to as the GNU runtime.

In 2009, a fork of this was committed to GNUstep subversion repository as libobjc2. Its development has since moved to [https://github.com/gnustep/libobjc2 gnustep/libobjc2] on github. This contains a lot of new features and removes a lot of legacy code. Unlike the original GNU runtime (which will be referred to as the GCC runtime, for differentiation), this can be built outside of the GCC tree and distributed independently. The GNUstep runtime supports two ABIs. One is compatible with the GCC runtime, the other is new and is designed to support the new language features added in recent years.

=== Which Runtime Should I use? ===
---------------------------

If you are using a very old version of GCC then you may need to use a newer version of GNU runtime. If you experience problems with the version of runtime that came with your compiler and you don't need support for the modern language features, then you should install libobjc from GNUstep subversion (libs/libobjc/trunk). This is a copy of version 1.6 of the GCC runtime which is modified to build outside the GCC tree.

If you want to make use of fast enumeration or declared properties, you can use the GCC runtime and GCC 4.6 or later.

More advanced features, such as automatic reference counting (ARC), non-fragile instance variables, or blocks require that you use the GNUstep runtime and clang as the compiler.

=== What is or was the Étoilé Runtime? ===
----------------------------------

The Étoilé Runtime is a research prototype that was originally intended to succeed the GNU runtime. After some time, it was determined that porting GNUstep to a completely new - and radically differently designed - runtime would be a massive undertaking, as would providing all of the related compiler support. It was also decided that two incompatible ABIs would not benefit anyone. The author of the Étoilé runtime is the maintainer of the GNUstep runtime and has back-ported most of the improvements from the Étoilé runtime to the GNUstep runtime.

=== Which Compiler Should I Use? ===
----------------------------

The history of Objective-C in GCC is somewhat complicated. Originally, NeXT was forced to release the original Objective-C front end in order to comply with the GPL. This code was not quite compatible with the GNU runtime and so it was modified. NeXT did not adopt these modifications and so each release of GCC by NeXT, and then Apple, contained changes that needed back-porting to the main branch of GCC.

For a long time, GCC was the only compiler that worked with GNUstep. Unfortunately, the GCC team has not invested much effort in Objective-C in the last few years and it currently lags behind Apple's version by a significant amount.

As of version 4.3, the Free Software Foundation changed the license of GCC to version 3 of the GNU General Public License. This means that future versions will not be shipped by Apple. OS X 10.6 ships with three compilers:

* Apple's fork of GCC 4.2.1
* LLVM-GCC
* Clang

The latter two use the [http://llvm.org/ Low Level Virtual Machine] for code generation. This is a BSD-licensed compiler infrastructure used by several other projects. LLVM-GCC is a hybrid, using Apple's version of GCC for parsing and LLVM for optimisation and native code generation. Clang is a new front end for LLVM.

Currently, LLVM-GCC is based on Apple's GCC and so does not support the GNU runtime. There is an effort underway to rewrite LLVM-GCC as a plugin for GCC 4.5, at which point it should support as much Objective-C as GCC currently does.

Unlike GCC, Clang features a clean abstraction layer between the runtime-specific and runtime-agnostic parts of the compiler. This means that adding support for new features on the GNU runtime is simply a matter of implementing the relevant methods in the CGObjCGNU class. This means that Clang is able to support almost everything on the GNUstep runtime that it does on either of the Apple runtimes.

=== Which Bits of Objective-C 2 Work? ===
---------------------------------

The answer to this question depends on the combination of compiler and runtime library that you are using. Currently, no features of Objective-C 2 work with GCC.

If you compile with Clang then you have access to declared properties, fast enumeration, and blocks. Note that both of these require some support from the runtime. This must be provided either by the GNUstep runtime or by the ObjectiveC2 framework, which you can acquire from Étoilé subversion. For blocks to work, you must also compile with -fblocks.

If you compile with the -fobjc-nonfragile-abi flag then you will use the new ABI. This is only supported with the GNUstep runtime. This adds:

* Property introspection
* Introspection on optional protocol methods
* Non-fragile instance variables
* Forwarding proxy support

Unlike Apple's non-fragile ABI, it is possible to mix code compiled for our fragile and non-fragile ABIs with some caveats. Message sending from code compiled with the fragile ABI will not be able to take advantage of forwarding proxies. If you subclass a non-fragile ABI class with a class compiled with the fragile ABI then you will not receive any benefits; the class compiled with the fragile ABI must be able to see all of the instance variables in the superclass at compile time or things will break. Some benefits will be obtained the other way around, however. A class compiled for the fragile ABI will always be able to access its own instance variables safely when the superclass changes, even if the superclass layout changes. It will, however, only be able to safely access instance variables declared in superclasses safely if the superclass is also compiled with the non-fragile ABI or if the superclass instance variable layout does not change.

=== Can I use Apple's Runtime APIs? ===
-------------------------------

You not only can, but should!

With OS X 10.5, Apple introduced a new set of APIs for interacting with the runtime. These hid the implementation details - previously all public - behind a set of public functions, implemented on both the modern and legacy runtimes.

These functions are supported by the GNUstep runtime and can also be used with the GCC runtime if you link against Étoilé's ObjectiveC2 framework.

From release 1.20.0 of the base library onwards the new runtime APIs are built in to the GNUstep base library (the Étoilé ObjectiveC2 framework is incorporated into base and extended/improved) so that the new APIs can be used with both old and new runtimes.

=== What About Garbage Collection? ===
------------------------------

GNUstep has supported garbage collection via the [http://www.hboehm.info/gc/ Boehm GC] for some years. The GNUstep runtime also supports a GC mode similar to the one by introduced by Apple. Since Apple has deprecated the GC mode in Mac OS X 10.8 in favour of ARC, it should no longer be used.

=== Where can I get it ===
------------------------------

You may obtain the code for the modern Objective-C runtime from github:

https://github.com/gnustep/libobjc2/releases

Objective-C Compiler and Runtime FAQ

2015-11-29T14:03:45Z

Thebeing:

DBusKit

2013-05-01T09:38:37Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = DBusKit is a framework that interfaces Objective-C applications with the D-Bus IPC service. |
currentversion = 0.1.1 |
releasedate = April 16 2013 |
license = LGPL |
overview = The DBusKit framework offers tight integration of D-Bus services into
Objective-C applications. It handles all low-level details of
communication with D-Bus daemons and the services connected to them and
exposes an interface similar to Distributed Objects to make it easy for
Objective-C programmers to access D-Bus services. |
features = * Distributed Objects-like API for exchanging messages with D-Bus services.
* A notification center class for watching signals emitted by D-Bus services.
* 'dk_make_interface' tool to generate Objective-C protocol declarations from D-Bus interface files. |
maintainer = * Niels Grewe |
relatedlinks = * [http://download.gna.org/gnustep/dbuskit-0.1.1.tar.gz Current release tarball]
* [http://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/libs/dbuskit/trunk SVN trunk]|
category =
}}

CommonCrypto

2012-03-17T10:28:35Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = CommonCrypto is Apple's library of crytographic primitives. |
currentversion = |
releasedate = |
license = APSL 2 |
overview = CommonCrypto is a C library that ships with Mac OS X and iOS. Though not per-se useful for Objective-C code, it makes porting existing code (esp. from iOS) to GNUstep a bit easier. The GNUstep port requires clang and libdispatch to build. |
features = All features from CommonCrypto as shipped with Mac OS X 10.7.3 |
maintainer = CommonCrypto is developed by Apple. The port to non-Darwin platforms is maintained by Niels Grewe. |
relatedlinks = *[https://chiselapp.com/user/thebeing/repository/GS-CommonCrypto/index Fossil repository] |
category = [[Category:Security_Frameworks]]
}}

CommonCrypto

2012-03-13T13:45:34Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = CommonCrypto is Apple's library of crytographic primitives. |
currentversion = |
releasedate = |
license = APSL 2 |
overview = CommonCrypto is C library that ships with Mac OS X and iOS. Though not per-se useful for Objective-C code, it makes porting existing code (esp. from iOS) to GNUstep a bit easier. The GNUstep port requires clang and libdispatch to build. |
features = All features from CommonCrypto as shipped with Mac OS X 10.7.3 |
maintainer = CommonCrypto is developed by Apple. The port to non-Darwin platforms is maintained by Niels Grewe. |
relatedlinks = *[https://chiselapp.com/user/thebeing/repository/GS-CommonCrypto/index Fossil repository] |
category = [[Category:Security_Frameworks]]
}}

CommonCrypto

2012-03-13T13:45:17Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = CommonCrypto is Apple's library of crytographic primitives. |
currentversion = |
releasedate = |
license = APSL 2 |
overview = CommonCrypto is C library that ships with Mac OS X and iOS. Though not per-se useful for Objective-C code, it makes porting existing code (esp. from iOS) to GNUstep a bit easier. The GNUstep port requires clang and libdispatch to build. |
features = All features from CommonCrypto as shipped with Mac OS X 10.7.3 |
maintainer = CommonCrypto is developed by Apple. The port to non-Darwin platforms is maintained by Niels Grewe. |
relatedlinks = *[https://chiselapp.com/user/thebeing/repository/GS-CommonCrypto/index Repository] |
category = [[Category:Security_Frameworks]]
}}

CommonCrypto

2012-03-13T13:44:21Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = CommonCrypto is Apple's library of crytographic primitives. |
currentversion = |
releasedate = |
license = APSL 2 |
overview = CommonCrypto is C library that ships with Mac OS X and iOS. Though not per-se useful for Objective-C code, it makes porting existing code (esp. from iOS) to GNUstep a bit easier. |
features = All features from CommonCrypto as shipped with Mac OS X 10.7.3 |
maintainer = CommonCrypto is developed by Apple. The port to non-Darwin platforms is maintained by Niels Grewe. |
relatedlinks = *[https://chiselapp.com/user/thebeing/repository/GS-CommonCrypto/index Repository] |
category = [[Category:Security_Frameworks]]
}}

DBusKit

2012-03-13T13:08:53Z

Thebeing:

{{Framework|
shortdescription = DBusKit is a framework that interfaces Objective-C applications with the D-Bus IPC service. |
currentversion = 0.1 |
releasedate = April 15 2011 |
license = LGPL |
overview = The DBusKit framework offers tight integration of D-Bus services into
Objective-C applications. It handles all low-level details of
communication with D-Bus daemons and the services connected to them and
exposes an interface similar to Distributed Objects to make it easy for
Objective-C programmers to access D-Bus services. |
features = * Distributed Objects-like API for exchanging messages with D-Bus services.
* A notification center class for watching signals emitted by D-Bus services.
* 'dk_make_interface' tool to generate Objective-C protocol declarations from D-Bus interface files. |
maintainer = * Niels Grewe |
relatedlinks = * [http://download.gna.org/gnustep/dbuskit-0.1.tar.bz2 Current release tarball]
* [http://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/libs/dbuskit/trunk SVN trunk]|
category =
}}

Template:GNUstep News

2011-04-20T08:04:58Z

Thebeing: Add news blurb for the DBusKit release

=== Apr 15 2011 ===
* '''[[DBusKit]] 0.1 release'''
: ([http://download.gna.org/gnustep/dbuskit-0.1.tar.bz2 Download DBusKit])

=== Apr 14 2011 ===
* '''GNUstep [[Make]] 2.6.0 stable release'''
: ([ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core/gnustep-make-2.6.0.tar.gz Download Make])
* '''GNUstep [[Base]] 1.22.0 stable release'''
: ([ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core/gnustep-base-1.22.0.tar.gz Download Base])
* '''GNUstep [[Gui]] 0.20.0 stable release'''
: ([ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core/gnustep-gui-0.20.0.tar.gz Download Gui])
* '''GNUstep [[Back]] 0.20.0 stable release'''
: ([ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core/gnustep-back-0.20.0.tar.gz Download Back])

=== Apr 11 2011 ===

*New installers for [http://www.gnustep.org/experience/Windows.html Windows]. Updated openssl package
* [http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-msys-system-0.27.1-setup.exe gnustep-msys-system-0.27.1-setup.exe]

=== Feb 19 2011 ===

*New installers for [http://www.gnustep.org/experience/Windows.html Windows]. Note the Mingw & Msys files are now in new directories, so it may
not work at all with older Windows installers:
* [http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-msys-system-0.27.0-setup.exe gnustep-msys-system-0.27.0-setup.exe]
* [http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-core-0.27.0-setup.exe gnustep-core-0.27.0-setup.exe]
* [http://ftpmain.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/binaries/windows/gnustep-devel-1.3.0-setup.exe gnustep-devel-1.3.0-setup.exe]

=== Feb 4th 2011 ===

* The schedule for the [http://fosdem.org/2011/schedule/track/world_of_gnustep_devroom GNUstep devroom at FOSDEM] is final: [[FOSDEM_2011#Schedule]]

DBusKit

2011-04-20T07:58:21Z

Thebeing: Create a information page for DBusKit

{{Framework|
shortdescription = DBusKit is a framework that interfaces Objective-C applications with the D-Bus IPC service. |
currentversion = 0.1 |
releasedate = April 15 201 |
license = LGPL |
overview = The DBusKit framework offers tight integration of D-Bus services into
Objective-C applications. It handles all low-level details of
communication with D-Bus daemons and the services connected to them and
exposes an interface similar to Distributed Objects to make it easy for
Objective-C programmers to access D-Bus services. |
features = * Distributed Objects-like API for exchanging messages with D-Bus services.
* A notification center class for watching signals emitted by D-Bus services.
* 'dk_make_interface' tool to generate Objective-C protocol declarations from D-Bus interface files. |
maintainer = * Niels Grewe |
relatedlinks = * [http://download.gna.org/gnustep/dbuskit-0.1.tar.bz2 Current release tarball]
* [http://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/libs/dbuskit/trunk SVN trunk]|
category =
}}

Summer Of Code Ideas

2011-03-24T19:57:17Z

Thebeing: /* Misc */

GNUstep is a mentoring organization of the Google Summer of Code.

In the list below you find the ideas that have been proposed as projects for the next Summer of Code. If you have a project that would be interesting, feel free to add it here.

If you find a topic that you want to work on, please apply directly through the SoC page [http://code.google.com/soc/2008/]

== Porting ==
=== Port [http://developer.apple.com/opensource/internet/webkit.html WebKit] (using GCC 4.x with ObjC++ support) ===
* The WebKit team is willing to help whoever wants to take on this project, please see [http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/discuss-gnustep/2007-03/msg00290.html this email].
* Implementation of CoreFoundation and CoreGraphics functions to support this
* Implementation of WTF types in WebKit to interface with GNUstep
Difficulty: Very High; Experience needed: Expert at C/C++ and Core* Apple libraries)

== General Improvements ==
=== Finish input server ===
* See [http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/gnustep/libs/gui/branches/kazunobu_input_management/ this] for more information
Difficulty: High; Required Experience: Objective-C, Cocoa

=== Finish Project Center ===
* Improve integrated editor to have better support for tabs and emacs/vi like editing
* Improve built-in debugger support on Windows and other platforms aside from Linux
* Correct issues which exist on Windows such as:
** make executable cannot be located unless the user changes it in PC directly.
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: Objective-C, Cocoa

=== Revamp Objective-C garbage collection and make it compatible with the Apple implementation ===
* Help finish implementation of Garbage Collection in the libobjc2 runtime (tracing is the only thing left to do, per David Chisnall)
Difficulty: High; Required Experience: C

=== Cross-compilation from GNU/Linux to embedded devices ===
* Compilation of GCC for the target architecture
* Compilation of GNUstep frameworks for target architecture
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: GCC

=== Cross-compilation to GNU/Linux or Windows from Xcode ===
* Compilation of GCC for the target architecture and OS.
* Compilation of standard libs for the target architecture and OS
* Knowledge of how to build an SDK for Xcode
* Compilation of GNUstep for target architecture and OS.
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: GCC, Mac OS X

=== [[GNUstepWeb]] ===
* add script language support, etc
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: Web Development, Cocoa/ObjC

=== [[SimpleWebKit]] ===
* help fix the following things:
** event handling
** better renderer
** parsing quirks
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: Cocoa/ObjC

* NSTextTable implementation in -gui and debugging of SWK against it (and Cocoa's reference) for the display of HTML tables
Difficulty: Medium to High; Access to Mac preferred for comparison of Table behaviour.

=== Screen change support ===
* handle resizing of the screen etc. It's now common to run in virtual machines or with multiple displays with different sizes, so we need to gracefully handle changes of screen size while an application is running.
Difficulty: Medium; Required Experience: Cocoa/ObjC

== AppKit (GUI) ==
* Complete theming support ... go through each control in the gui and make sure it draws itself using the theming engine, adding methods to the theming engine as required. Update/improve Thematic.app to match by providing wysiwyg editine/cretion of themes for each control.
* Fix focusing bugs/issues making sure GNUstep apps can be used with all window managers
* Text System should be cleaned, profiled and finished. Many methods in NSLayoutManager are unfinished or unimplemented, so we currently cannot tweak the test system as much as the one provided by Cocoa. (Quentin Mathe)
* We need NSTypeSetter, NSGlyphStorage, NSGlyphInfo, and NSGlyphGenerator implementations. If NSTypeSetter and NSLayoutManager were implemented, they would probably be used in Etoile. (Quentin Mathe)
* NSTextTable, NSTextTableBlock, NSTextList, & NSTextBlock implementations would also bring the GNUstep text system in line with that of Cocoa as of Mac OS 10.4. The classes could be useful to build a powerful word processor, NSTextTable will help getting Tables for SimpleWebKit. (Quentin Mathe)
* NSOpenGL Classes could be improved, made compatible with current Cocoa implementations, and further tested. Note sure about that anymore. Feedback from people using these classes would be useful? (Quentin Mathe)
* NSBitmapImageRep formats: Currently, we support reading and writing for TIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PNM (reading-only). We would like to complete NSEPSImageRep and NSPDFImageRep (with Cairo?). SVG reading and writing support, would be nice too. (Quentin Mathe)
* NSDatePicker (and obligatory companion NSCell subclass) implementation.
* NSFormatter isn't working very well at this time. Not sure anymore about this one… (Quentin Mathe)
* Backend: especially xlib but also art could use performance improvements. NSImageView scrolling on xlib comes to my mind for example. (shouldn't improvements focus on the preferred, cairo backend rather than the deprecated ones?)
* improve our RTF parser, to be able to correctly load OO and MS-Office created RTFs. Add support for reading NeXT RTFDs. Correct loading of Apple RTFs including char encoding

== Foundation (Base) ==
* Improve testsuite to have regression tests cover much more of base library.
* Implement Apple's scripting/apple-events classes as a subproject of the base library.
* Complete separation of gnustep specific extensions from Apple APIs and implement new Apple methods missing from existing classes for compatibility.
* Complete implementation of Apple's latest URL handling classes based on NSStream... testing on mswindows as well as unix.
* Implement CoreFoundation on Base
* Now that Apple have XML based keyed coding, implement a version of Distributed Objects to talk directly to Apple applications (Nicolaus has done some work towards this in mySTEP).

== Core Data ==
* Saso Kiselkov started implementing this [http://gscoredata.nongnu.org/ framework] and now hosted here [http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/gnustep/libs/gscoredata/] as part of GNUstep. However, NSManagedObjectContext & NSPersistentStoreCoordinator have yet to be tackled according to his web page. Presumably NSPersistentDocument also needs to be implemented.
* DataBuilder.app needs some final graphics improvements. And, should become able to read and write model files from Xcode.

== Misc ==
* Create an AJAX Framework for GNUstepWeb
** [http://sourceforge.net/projects/wonder Project WONDER], especially the stuff mentioned here: [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:WebObjects/Project_WONDER/Frameworks/Ajax] could be ported over from Java. See also [http://search.lists.apple.com/?cmd=Search!&fmt=long&form=extended&m=all&ps=10&q=Ajax&sp=1&ul=webobjects-dev&wf=2221&wm=wrd&s=DRP] and [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=webobjects+ajax&btnG=Search]
* There's a truck load of stuff in WO 5.4.1 that GNUstepWeb is missing: [http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Reference/WO541Reference/index.html]
* Add support for exposing objects on D-Bus to DBusKit.
* User your yacc/bison and (f)lex knowledge to finalize a source code translator for ObjC-2.0 to ObjC-1.0 [http://www.quantum-step.com/download/sources/mySTEP/objc-2.0/]
* ''OpenGL extensions management API'': before using an OpenGL extension a program must first determine its availability. The mechanism for doing this is platform-specific and libraries such as [[w:GLEW]] and [[w:GLEE]] exist to simplify the process. The target of this project is a multiplatform Objective-C wrapper around OpenGL platform-specific functions.
* ''HID API'': GNUstep can only handle the usual ''human interface devices'' (HID) : keyboard and mouse. A multiplatform framework would allow GNUstep application to handle joystick, graphic tablet or 3D device.

== [http://gap.nongnu.org GAP] (GNUstep Application Project) Ideas ==

* Debug and Complete FlexiSheet, making sure it works on Cocoa as expected and noting incompatibilities with GNUstep. Those should be either fixed for both platforms (FlexiSheet portability of code improvement) or noted as a bug or missing feature in GNUstep.
** printing
** cell formatting
** improved undo
** searching

* implementation (Extract from Addresses) of an iSync compatible framework, its corresponding management application and then integrating it with AddressBook (which already has part of such framework). The goal would be to have synchronization of Addresses (but in future, perhaps calendar, Vespucci bookmarks) gnustep to gnustep, gnustep to mac and gnustep to .Mac/MobileMe by having such account.
* porting of Applications from OpenStep or Cocoa abandonware. This needs to be checked on application-per-application: License and dependencies can be a problem as defining the scope of the project well.

* Implement a Dictionary tool based on dict.leo.org

* Some miscellaneous applications that run a Cocoa GUI could be ported to GNUstep:
** ''Vim GUI'' : at least two cocoa-based gui projects already exist - [http://www.ohloh.net/p/vim-cocoa vim-cocoa] and [http://macvim.org/OSX mac-vim]
** [http://www.videolan.org/vlc VLC media player] : a Cocoa based interface exists for VLC
** propose your own

* for more ideas check [http://gap.nongnu.org/developers/wishlist.html GAP wishlist]

[[Category:Summer Of Code]]

FOSDEM 2011

2011-02-15T16:13:15Z

Thebeing: Add a link to slides for my talk.

== FOSDEM 2011 Announcement ==

[http://fosdem.org/2011/ FOSDEM 2011] will take place at at the '''Université Libre de Bruxelles''', in '''Brussels''' on '''Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2011'''.

This page is for organizing GNUstep's participation in the event. This includes the organization of a developer meeting
the Friday before FOSDEM.

== Organizer(s) ==

* Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf (lars dot sonchocky dash helldorf at hamburg dot de)
* is somebody else interested in lending me a hand?

== Who will attend FOSDEM ==

One of the main reasons people attend the event is that you can meet, and talk directly to, other developers, whom you would otherwise meet only virtually (on mailing lists, emails, newsgroups, IRC etc.). We expect many lead developers and contributors to be present, so if you have never met them, you shouldn't miss this occasion!

The following is a list of people of GNUstep fame who have confirmed (or denied) that they will be able to join us at the GNUstep meeting at FOSDEM 2011:

{| border="1"
! Name
! Presence
! Friday
4. Feb
! Saturday
5. Feb
! Sunday
6. Feb
! Monday
7. Feb
! Special comments / topics
! Hotel

|-
| Lars S.-Helldorf || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || event organizer || Argus Hotel
|-
| Nikolaus Schaller || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || QuantumSTEP || Louise, Rue Veydt
|-
| Quentin Mathé || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || Étoilé || t.b.d
|-
| Niels Grewe || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || Étoilé || Argus Hotel
|-
| David Chisnall || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || Étoilé || t.b.d
|-
| Sebastian Reitenbach || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || OpenBSD packages || t.b.d.
|-
| Nicolas Roard || Yes || No || Yes || Yes || ? || Étoilé || Argus Hotel, Rue Capitaine Crespel
|-
| Nicola Pero || Yes || No || Yes || Yes || ? || GNUstep || t.b.d
|-
| Fred Kiefer || Yes || Yes || Yes || Yes || ? || GNUstep || Argus Hotel
|-
| t.b.d. || t.b.d. || t.b.d. || t.b.d. || t.b.d. || t.b.d. || t.b.d. ||
|}

== Dev-Room Presentations and Events ==

The room at out disposal will be '''AW1.117''' (capacity is 31 seats; in the building "AW"),
-- on '''Saturday 2011-02-05''' from '''13:00''' to '''19:00'''

=== Call for participation ===

We are looking for people who want to give a talk, moderate a discussion, hold a hand ons (practice) / hacking session or organize a code sprint. Please send your proposals to [mailto:discuss-gnustep@gnu.org GNUstep discussion list], the organizers mentioned [[FOSDEM_2011#Organizers|above]] or - if you've got a wiki account - enter them right [http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php?title=FOSDEM_2011&action=edit&section=6 here]. At first a title, a short summary, proposed duration and a preffered time slot would do, so we can start scheduling as soon as possible.

'''deadline for filing is t.b.d., deadline for the papers is t.b.d.'''

'''Note:''' The FOSDEM organizers strongly recommend a '''granularity of 15 minute blocks'''. So if a talk is just 15 (lightning talk), 30 or 45 minutes long - fine! But we should have 15 minutes breaks between the talks so that the visitors have enough time to find a seat and the presenters have enough time to get ready.

=== List of submitted talk/discussion/session proposals ===

* David Chisnall:
** t.b.d.
** t.b.d. (Yeah, David, I know you want to give some talks ;-))

* Nikolaus Schaller: Latest progress of Simple WebKit and QuantumSTEP, 45 min

* Quentin Mathé:
** Fast and Flexible UI Development with EtoileUI (overview and what's new since the previous FOSDEM), 45 to 60 mn
** Étoilé Status Update, 30 to 45 mn

* Niels Grewe: DBusKit: Integrating GNUstep applications with the free software desktop (30min or lightning talk)

* Nicola Pero:
** Objective-C support in GCC 4.6, 30 min

=== Wishlist for talks/discussions/sessions ===

Enter talks/discussions/sessions here you would be interested in.

* CoreBase and CoreGraphics/Opal in GNUstep
* GNUstep Progresses and Roadmap
* DBusKit
* EtoileText (… I'm especially curious about the possibility to leverage OMeta to write the tree transform rules)
* LanguageKit Progresses
* How to develop a UIKit?

=== Schedule ===

{| border="1"
!width="65pt"| Time Slot !! width="130pt"| Author !! width="360pt"| Title / Abstract !! width="130pt"| Kind !! width="40pt" | Slides
|-
| colspan="5" style="background:#ddd;" | '''Saturday, Feb 05, 2011'''
|-
| 13:00 - 13:30 || GNUstep Developers || '''GNUstep Developer's Meeting'''

Meet the GNUstep developers face to face, discuss current afairs of GNUstep, share news about the latest development and plans on GNUstep, improve collaboration between the several GNUstep related projects

|| meeting, discussion || -
|-
| 13:30 - 14:15 || Quentin Mathé || '''Étoilé: What has been done over the past year and what's next?'''

In this presentation, we will take a look at the Étoilé progresses over the past year. We will summarize our work on both our core frameworks and GNUstep to which we have contributed a lot recently. We will also discuss the project status in a broader way, and what can be expected in 2011.

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 14:15 - 14:45 || David Chisnall || '''LanguageKit - supporting Smalltalk and JavaScript dialects on the Objective-C runtime - what's hard, what's easy, and why developers and users should care.'''

The GNUstep Objective-C runtime was designed to make it relatively easy to support other dynamic languages, sharing an object model with Objective-C. This talk will discuss some of the features and how they are used by LanguageKit, a framework designed to make it easy to implement domain-specific languages with static compilation, JIT and interpreter modes.

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 14:45 - 15:00 || David Chisnall || '''EtoileText'''

EtoileText is a framework designed for supporting structured text with semantic annotations. It was used to generate the XHTML for the ePub edition of my latest book, the Objective-C Phrasebook, from LaTeX sources. This talk will discuss the core design of EtoileText, its use, and plans for its future evolution.

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 15:00 - 16:00 || Quentin Mathé || '''Fast and Flexible UI Development with EtoileUI'''

EtoileUI is a high-level UI toolkit for Étoilé where elements visible on screen are abstract nodes to which pluggable aspects can be bound. The same uniform tree structure is used to describe any kind of structured content (composite document, application User Interface etc.) and the role of each node can be entirely changed at runtime by altering the aspects bound to it. All User Interface concerns such as layouts, tools, action handlers, styles, model objects etc. are pluggable aspects which can be easily reused and recombined.

In this presentation, we will give a general introduction to the EtoileUI framework available on any GNUstep platform and also Mac OS X (EtoileUI is Cocoa compatible). We will discuss which problems EtoileUI tries to solve, and how it moves away from the monolithic widget model used by most other UI toolkits to support treating the User Interface as a permanent prototype. We will share our progresses since the last FOSDEM and highlight various points which were not covered in the last year presentation. Finally we will present new features which have been added recently and talk about our next plans a bit.

[http://etoileos.com/etoile/features/etoileui/ EtoileUI Overview]

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 16:00 - 16:30 || David Chisnall || '''Discussing UIKit / iOS implementation plans'''

iOS is increasingly popular as a platform, even dwarfing OS X. GNUstep already has support for a number of the core APIs in iOS. This is an open discussion session, which will begin with a very short talk explaining what is still missing from allowing easy ports from iOS to other platforms with GNUstep, followed by an open discussion session.

|| talk, discussion || t.b.d.
|-
| 16:30 - 17:15 || Nikolaus Schaller || '''Latest progress of Simple WebKit and QuantumSTEP'''

The talk will cover two loosely connected areas of recent development. One is about a WebView compatible HTML/CSS/JavaScript Engine written completely in Objective-C to ease maintainance and improvements. This is called "Simple Web Kit" or "Small Web Kit". The talk will show and explain technical details of the latest developments in HTML and CSS processing.
The other part is about QuantumSTEP, a lightweight variant of GNUstep with focus on X11/Linux based Embedded devices. A demonstration will cover MIPS based Netbooks and ARM based smartphones.

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 17:15 - 17:45 || Niels Grewe || '''DBusKit: Integrating GNUstep applications with "foreign" desktop environments.'''

GNUstep has always encouraged good integration between different applications and provides technologies like distributed objects or the services-mechanism to do achieve this in elegant ways. Since these technologies are limited to the Objective-C ecosystem, integration with other desktop and programming environments has been lagging behind comparatively. This talk examines the present status and future directions of DBusKit, an Objective-C framework that provides access to the D-Bus IPC system, allowing better integration of GNUstep applications into environments that rely on D-Bus for IPC.

[http://www.halbordnung.de/~thebeing/gnustep/dbuskit.pdf Slides]
|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 17:45 - 18:15 || Nicola Pero || '''Objective-C support in GCC 4.6'''

This presentation introduces the state of Objective-C support in GCC 4.6
and discusses the new Objective-C features available.

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 18:15 - 18:30 || Sebastian Reitenbach || '''GNUstep on OpenBSD, a short overview'''

The talk will focus on what was there, half a year ago and what will OpenBSD 4.9 have in the ports tree. The following questions will be answered:
* why GNUstep on OpenBSD?
* what works (where, i.e. which platforms), and what's not?
* why its not working on some platforms?
* whats planned, or needed to have more progress/GNUstep ports added?

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| 18:30 - 19:00 || Gregory Casamento || '''The latest on Gorm an GNUstep theming'''

|| talk || t.b.d.
|-
| contingency plan || GNUstep Developers || '''Frameworks lightning talks'''

|| talk || t.b.d.
|}

== Suggested Hotels ==

last year Sebastian Reitenbach and Nikolaus Schaller have booked here. Alk them on the mailing list on their Experience:

=== Louise Hotel ===
* 40, rue Veydt
* 1050 Bruxelles
* http://www.louisehotel.com/
* Sebastian Reitenbach says:
** book via: http://www.hotelreservierungen.de , which is cheaper than the offer on the hotel site. The reservation includes breakfast.
** free WiFi is available
** it costs only about half the price of the Argus hotel from last year.
** Its near avenue louise, only a foot walk away from the university campus.

=== Argus Hotel Brussels (Belguim) (good experiences from past years) ===
*6, Rue Capitaine Crespel
*B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgique
*Tel +32 2 514 07 70
*Fax +32 2 514 12 22
*reception@hotel-argus.be
*Rate: 65/night - but you have to ask for the 'GNUstep/FOSDEM' discount
*has free Internet ;-)

Normal prices are here:

http://www.hotel-argus.be/ukrates.htm

but there are discounts available:

http://www.hotel-argus.be/ukpromotions.htm

and we'll ask for even better discounts for a group booking (we need to know who's will be there for that!)

Some people booked that hotel in the last years: Nicolas, Marcus, Helge ,Lars.

=== Sun Hotel in Brussels (Belguim) (not recommended) ===
*Rue du Berger, 38
*1050 Brussels (near Porte de Namur)
*Tel : +32(0)2 511 21 19
*Fax : +32(0)2 512 32 71
*sunhotel@skynet.be
*www.hotels-belgium.com/brussel-al/sunhotel.htm

*50 EUR/Single room with breakfast
*22 rooms total
*3km distance to University

has internet access, will make breakfast room available for developers after 11:00 am. Two electrical plugs for breakfast room, so need extension cord with additional plugs. Ask for first or second floor rooms close to reception for good wifi connections.

=== Hotel Sabina in Brussels (Belgium)===
*Rue du Nord 78
*B-1000 Brussels
*Tel: (32)2 218 26 37
*Fax: (32)2 219 32 39
(very good rating by visitors)
63 EUR/Single with breakfast
8 single only + 16 double rooms
4,2km distance

=== Hotel Mozart in Bruxelles (Belgium)===
*Rue Marché aux Fromages 23
*B-1000 Brussels
*Tel +32 2 502 66 61
*Fax +32 2 502 77 58
*Email Hotel.mozart@skynet.be
http://www.hotels-belgium.com/brussel-center/mozart.htm

70 EUR/Single room NO breakfast
WLAN

51 rooms total
4,2km distance

We are open to other suggestions. Please take into account distance to the University and access to public transportation.

----
A quick introduction to Brussels:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Brussel

----

[[Category:FOSDEM]]

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FOSDEM 2011

2011-01-19T14:02:21Z

Thebeing:

FOSDEM 2011

2010-12-13T19:43:02Z

Thebeing: