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103 lines
4.5 KiB
Text
103 lines
4.5 KiB
Text
Frequently Asked Questions With Answers
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***************************************
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Maintained by Scott Christley <scottc@net-community.com>.
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Last updated March 28 1997. The most up-to-date version of this FAQ
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is available at:
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`ftp://www.gnustep.org/Documentation/gnustep-gui/gnustep-gui_toc.html'
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Please send corrections to <scottc@net-community.com>.
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1. What is the GNUstep GUI Library?
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The GNUstep GUI Library is a library of objects useful for writing
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graphical applications. For example, it includes classes for
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drawing and manipulating graphics objects on the screen: windows,
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menus, buttons, sliders, text fields, and events. There are also
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many peripheral classes that offer operating-system-independent
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interfaces to images, cursors, colors, fonts, pasteboards,
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printing. There are also workspace support classes such as data
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links, open/save panels, context-dependent help, spell checking.
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It provides functionality that aims to implement the `AppKit'
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portion of the OpenStep standard. However the implementation has
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been written to take advantage of GNUstep enhancements wherever
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possible.
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2. Explain the organization of the front and back-ends.
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The GNUstep GUI Library is divided into a front and back-end. The
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front-end contains the majority of implementation, but leaves out
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the low-level drawing and event code. A back-end can override
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whatever methods necessary in order to implement low-level drawing
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event receiving. Different back-ends will make GNUstep available
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on various platforms. The default GNU back-end will run on top of
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the X Window System and the Display Ghostscript Server. Other
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back-ends could allow GNUstep to run on Mac, OS/2, and WIN32
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graphics/event platforms. Much work will be saved by this clean
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separation between front and back-end, because it allows different
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platforms to share the large amount of front-end code.
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The front-end does not specify what mechanism to use in order to
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"plug in" the back-end; that is the back-end implementor's choice.
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At least two backends will use `+poseAs:' method, for example,
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running `[XDPSWindow poseAs: [NSWindow class]]'. Using `+poseAs:'
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is more flexible than using Categories because it allows the the
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back-end implementor to choose what to override in the front-end,
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instead of having the interface between front and back-end fixed
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by the front-end.
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3. What is the current state of development of the front-end?
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A number of classes in the front-end are complete or almost
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complete; these include: NSActionCell, NSButtonCell, NSButton,
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NSCell, NSColor, NSColorWell, NSControl, NSCursor, NSEvent,
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NSFont, NSImage, NSImageRep, NSBitmapImageRep, NSResponder,
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NSSlider, NSScroller, NSTextField, and NSTextFieldCell.
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Other classes are complete enough to use, but still require some
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major additions before being considered almost complete:
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NSApplication, NSBox, NSFontManager, NSMatrix, NSMenu, NSMenuCell,
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NSPopUpButton, NSSliderCell, NSText, NSView, and NSWindow.
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You can review the most up-to-date status report at:
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`http://www.gnustep.org/Documentation/gnustep-gui/gnustep-gui_toc.html'.
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4. What back-ends are available?
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The official back-end is the GNUstep X/DPS GUI Backend which runs
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under the X Window System and interfaces to the Display Ghostscript
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System. You can learn more at:
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`http://www.gnustep.org/Documentation/gnustep-xdps/gnustep-xdps_toc.html'
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5. Where can I get a copy?
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The gstep-gui-0.5.0.tar.gz distribution file has been placed on
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`ftp.gnustep.org' in `pub/gnustep/core'.
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The program requires gcc 2.8.0 or higher.
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It requires the Display Ghostscript System version 0.5.0 and the
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TIFF Graphics library version 3.4.
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It also requires a FoundationKit library as specified by the
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OpenStep specification. The FoundationKit libraries known to work
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are the GNUstep Base Library version `0.5.0' and libFoundation
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version `0.7.1'.
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The `.tar' file is compressed with GNU gzip. Gzip can be obtained
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by anonymous ftp at any of the GNU archive sites.
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For info about FTP via email, send email to
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<ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com> with no subject line, and two-line body
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with line one `help' and line two `quit'.
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The most recent (not necessarily tested) snapshots of the library
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will be placed in
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`ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnustep'.
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