GNUstep(7)						       GNUstep System Manual							GNUstep(7)

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 informa-
       tion.

       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 sys-
       tem, 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 ref-
       ered  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.  Pal-
       ettes 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 main-
	      tenance 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 specifi-
       cation 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)