ANN: Openstep for Zaurus: mySTEP-1.3, myPDA-3.1a4, Zaurus-gcc-2.95.3X10.3a1

[Dr. Nikolaus Schaller]

Dear all,
new releases for the GNUstep clone "mySTEP" for the Sharp Zaurus and
its runtime environment "myPDA" (X11 + window manager) as well as the
gcc cross-compiler hosted on MacOS X 10.3 have been released recently.

The parts are becoming more and more mature - although they are not
yet ripe enough for productivity. But you can already take Cocoa
applications, add the cross-compiler settings, and compile into a "fat
binary" .app bundle that runs verbatim on MacOS X as well as on a
Zaurus with myPDA. Sharing of your experiences are very welcome!

It is also possible to create 240x320 windows with Interface Builder
and have them displayed (with some elements missing) on the Zaurus.
Elements like buttons and menus are also working.

Development is continuing. Currently, the menu system is being
reworked to show a menu and a status bar as used to by MacOS X and
allowing to easily switch between applications.

Here a short description of the parts of the system:

"myPDA" (a clone of mGSTEP/GNUstep) is the runtime environment (an
application that can be started from within Qtopia on the Zaurus). It
shuts down Qtopia, starts the X11 server on the Zaurus and a window
manager and launches myFinder (which itself is not yet working).

"mySTEP" provides shared libraries libFoundation, libAppKit,
libABAddressBook, libPreferencePane, libSystemUI (MenuExtras) for the
Zaurus-Linux. libFoundation is approx. 98% compatible. libAppKit
implements approx. 70% of the Mac counterpart.

"Zaurus-gcc" is a binary distribution of the Cross compiler for
installation on MacOS X - with direct integration into Xcode.

More info and downloads are available through:
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=myPDA
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=mySTEP
http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/project.php?project=Zaurus%20X-gcc

System requirements:
* Sharp Zaurus (tested on 5500G with ROM 3.10) - no SD/CF required but
recommended
* MacOS X 10.3 incl. Xcode, X11SDK installed
* a connection between the machines (USB or WLAN)

Application for participating in this project is also welcome.

Nikolaus