new to group, request clarifications

[a b]

I recently became aware of GNUstep and have been trying to learn more
about it.  I was wondering if you could clear up a few things that are not
totally clear? 
 
 If my questions are in the wrong group, please direct me to
the appropriate group.  If I have included too many questions in a single
posting, I apologize.
 
 
1)  Does GNUstep follow the "write once, run many" philosophy of JAVA?
Would a separate compilation be required for every platform which an
author wishes to support?  Is GNUstep 100% interpreted, 100% compiled,
or a hybrid of the two?  Does GNUstep exhibit any similarities to JAVA,
where the source code may be easily reconstructed due to its being an
interpreted environment?
 
2)  I understand that GNUstep falls under the GNU LGPL. (reference #1 below)
It's my understanding that this allows an author to create "non-free"
applications where the author is not required to provide the application
source code.   I have also seen an article (reference #3 below) which explains
how an application may be distributed to Windows users without requiring
the user to first install GNUstep.  While JAVA applications do require that JAVA
be previously installed, most Windows applications are standalone.  If an author
created an application and packaged it as standalone, including only the necessary
GNUstep .dll files to make it work, would this be allowed under the LGPL?  It would
seem that if the author did not modify any of the GNUstep software, that providing
the source code would not be necessary as it is freely available elsewhere.  Would
it be sufficient to simply provide one or more URLs where the GNUstep source code
could be downloaded?
 
3)  According to reference #2 below, if you distribute a library under the LGPL, you
have to distribute the source.  Since I only recently discovered GNUstep, I have not
yet found any sources associated with the Windows installers you have at GNUstep.org. 
Perhaps the sources are included with the installer, but I did not see them.  If they are
there but I didn't see them, I apologize.  My confusion is, which libraries are included
in those installers so I know which sources would need to be downloaded?
 
4)  In reference #5 there is discussion of a couple of potential problems if you
package a GNUstep application as a standalone.  Has there been any resolution of
these issues?
 
5)  I have heard of something called Droidstep, which is also supposed to be under
the GNU LGPL.  Do you know anything about this?

Thank you
==============================================================
**** reference #1
"Introduction to GNUstep"  (www.gnustep.org)
License
The GNUstep libraries are covered under the GNU Lesser (Library) Public License.
This generally means you can use these libraries in any program (even non-free
programs) without affecting the license of your program or any other libraries
GNUstep is linked with. If you distribute the GNUstep libraries along with your
program, you must make the improvements you have made to the GNUstep
libraries freely available. The stand-alone tools in GNUstep are under the
standard GPL.
==============================================================
**** reference #2
"The LGPL and Java" by David Turner    (www.gnu.org)
When you distribute the library with your application (or on its own), you need to
include source code for the library. But if your application instead requires users
to obtain the library on their own, you don't need to provide source code for the
library.
==============================================================
**** reference #3
Date: 28-Feb-2007 (tested under Windows XP)
Update: 06-Mar-2010
Author: Nicola Pero <nicola.pero@meta-innovation.com>
        after Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org> and others
This document is intended to provide a step by step instruction on how
to use GNUstep on recent Windows operating systems (XP, 2000, and
probably NT).
It will get as far as explaining how to build a GNUstep application
and create a standalone version that can be shipped standalone to
Windows end users.
......
In the second part ("HOW TO SHIP YOUR GNUSTEP APPLICATION TO WINDOWS
USERS"), we'll show an example of how to package (and use) the .exes,
.dlls and resources (that you can build using the environment
described in the first part) as Windows standalone binaries.
.........
You probably want to ship your Windows application as a standalone
... that Windows users can easily download and use.
... you want to make sure you remove anything that you
don't strictly need.  So go in there and remove anything that you
don't need.  ...............
==============================================================
**** reference #4
Date: 28-Feb-2007 (tested under Windows XP)
Update: 06-Mar-2010
Author: Nicola Pero <nicola.pero@meta-innovation.com>
        after Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org> and others
... make sure you are aware of the licenses, and that
you comply with them.  
..........
==============================================================
**** reference #5
Date: 28-Feb-2007 (tested under Windows XP)
Update: 06-Mar-2010
Author: Nicola Pero <nicola.pero@meta-innovation.com>
        after Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org> and others
The gdnc, gpbs processes are somehow a bit of a pain.  They are
automatically started when you start your application, but they are
not automatically stopped when you quit it. 
...
Also, it's not clear what happens if you have two or three such
GNUstep apps downloaded from the web and you try to run them at the
same time.  What about gdomap etc ?
==============================================================