Re: Re[3]: Gnustep + mac + windows?)

[Andreas Heppel]

On 2002-09-26 08:22:03 +0100 Richard Frith-Macdonald <richard@brainstorm.co.uk> 
wrote:

> On Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 07:57 AM, Saibot wrote:
>
> >    From: "Manuel Guesdon" <ml@orange-concept.com>
> > > On Wed, 25 Sep 2002 12:14:22 +0200 Andreas Heppel <aheppel@web.de> wrote:
> >
> > > Another thought is that GNUstep like lots of 'free' projects is based on
> > people interests. If someone want a feature,
> > > it code it. If he's the only one who want it and don't want to make it,
> > the feature never come. I think GNustep is like
> > > this: people have different interests and desire and make things to follow
> > that. Windows people and Mac OS X
> > > ones may choose to be interested and participate to GNUstep development
> > but why one should do it for them ?
> >
> > Because not everyone who desires a feature has the ability or time to do it.
> > I've seen quite a lot of people on this list ask about windows or mac os x
> > compatibility. GNustep, like most open source software, is made to be used.
> > Users of something don't have to be developers of that thing too. If you
> > were developing a multimedia application and a user asks about a loop
> > fonctionality, would you complain "why should I do it for him"? You'd either
> > code it or not or someone else would, or not. If you got 100s of requests
> > for that feature, you might consider implementing it although you wouldn't
> > use it yourself...
>
> Yep ... I agree with both points of view ... sometimes I implement stuff I
> have no intention of using (though most often when I think there is a chance
> I might want to use it in future) ... like a lot of the work porting the
> base library to windoze.  On the other hand, it's frustrating to see people
> asking for features but not contributing, or worse, asking for features, which
> I implement, and then nobody (or hardly anybody) uses.  Despite the frustration,
> we have to keep trying ... it's one way progress happens.
I fully agree, too. Nothing to be added here.

> > You don't have to try and make people switch to unix or GNustep. Andreas
> > said "Windows developers could be interested in GNustep, if they joined it
> > would help". Nobody's saying you have to try and convert them. Just that if
> > GNustep had a windows GUI, more people would join, which would be good for
> > GNustep.
>
> I think this is true ... but Fred has done the major work of implementing the
> windows gui to the point where less experienced people ought to be able to
> take development forward, now is probably the time for people who want to
> develop on windows to have the vision to work on it.  It's unreasonable to
> expect core GNUstep developers who work entirely on GNU/linuxto put a lot of
> their time into windows development (though I think we've all offered to help
> and advise).
I can fully understand your point here. I haven't looked into GNUstep for 
Windows, yet, but from the one or other posting here I get the impression that 
the foundation is pretty far. As I am a bit out of Windows (my last experience 
is Win9x and NT 4.0) and fully into Linux I wouldn't want to take the lead in 
carrying on the Windows port. But if anyone says he/she wants to take the main 
part in this I might at least be able to help here and there or give some 
advice.
And this would surely be not for me, but "for them" ;-)

Cheers,
Andreas

--

Andreas Heppel           SYSGO Real-Time Solutions GmbH     ahe@sysgo.de
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