Swift->ObjC interop

Some interesting notes. I will update this posting as i find more: * https://dart.dev/guides/libraries/objective-c-interop

Compatibility project almost complete

As the much villified theme for star trek enterprise says "its been a long road getting from there to here" i am almost done with all of the work that needed to be done to get us to Catalina compatibility in GNUstep. The reason this is still significant is because Apple hasn't made many changes to either the Foundation or AppKit APIs since then. I have been workinf hard over the last three years. All of the new classes are fully tested. Once this effort is completed I am going to focus on printing, which has always been a problem in GS. And possibly a "reference" distribution.

Foundation is now close to Catalina compatibility

I have worked hard to get it to this point, but all of the classes in Catalina are now present in GNUstep's base implementation. Soon, all of the classes available in AppKit will also be available in GNUstep's GUI implementation. Please contribute to the project via patreon.... Become a Patron!

The results speak for themselves...

For the record, when I say "modern" I do NOT mean the current, old, NeXTSTEP based theme with new widgets. I mean a redesigned one.

What new features would you most like to see in GNUstep going forward? Swift support is already happening...

— Gregory Casamento (@bheron) December 28, 2015

Still waiting on you, Apple...

Back in July Apple promised to open source Swift. :)   Well, Apple?  What's going on?  Is this still the plan, Apple?

Swift 2.0 Going Open Source.... great news!

As announced on their blog and on WWDC, Swift 2.0 will be going open source:

https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/?id=29

GNUstep will fully support bindings to Swift.  We will start on support for this as soon as the source code is released by Apple.  I couldn't be happier about being proven wrong by Apple.  Thank you for restoring my faith in this regard.

The Reasons I Love GNUstep -- Speaking for Free Software

Recently, I had a discussion with RMS about being a speaker for Free Software.   In the end I was told simply to record some of my talks and that I would be given some feedback, but during the discussion I explained why I think GNUstep is important to free software and I believe that this is something that I think is important for other people to understand as well:

Hey Richard,

That shouldn't be hard to do.  I get invited to speak about GNUstep a
lot.  Not just about the technical aspects, but about it's importance
to free software.

While I have your attention, I would like to tell you the following...

I tend to see GNUstep as very important to the free software movement
as it facilitates developers moving away from environments such as
Cocoa and UIKit.  Apple has always been a power for control and an
enemy of freedom which is why I am so passionate about GNUstep.  I
don't like that they have locked down users like they have.

I realize that the rest of the community may not share my view and,
honestly, I have been somewhat disheartened as of late as I have
always had trouble getting other developers to see GNUstep as I do.
They focus on GNOME and KDE and consider Objective-C ugly or not
elegant.  I think that's a shame.   Which brings me to my final point.
  
Apple has recently introduced a new language called Swift.   It has
become abundantly clear that they have no intention of releasing Swift
even as open source (which I understand is a different movement, but
it would, at least, be a step for them in something which resembles
the right direction).

I feel like speaking about free software and, specifically, speaking
about how GNUstep can play an important role in it is why I would like
to be listed on the speakers list.   It would give me more of an
opportunity to speak out about Apple's evils and generally raise
awareness.

Thanks, GC

So, if anyone would like me to come and speak about free software or about GNUstep, please let me know.  I would be grateful for the opportunity.

Recent Article About Swift Confirms Apple's Position

I really do hate being right sometimes.  I believe that's enough said on the subject, don't you?  All I know now is that action must be taken.   The era of closed source languages is over and has been for some time.