Announcement ************ The GNUstep core libraries version 0.6.6 is now available. What is GNUstep? ================ GNUstep is a free, object-oriented development environment, consisting of libraries which implement the basic functionality of most common applications, as well as various tools to support the developement and execution of applications. The GNUstep core libraries are a set of general-purpose Objective-C libraries based on the OpenStep standard developed by NeXT (now Apple) Inc. The libraries consist of everything from foundation classes, such as dictionaries and arrays, to GUI interface classes such as windows, sliders, buttons, etc. There is more information as well as descriptions of other parts of GNUstep available at the GNUstep homepage at `http://www.gnustep.org/'. What's new in this release? =========================== The currently released version is `0.6.6'. Noteworthy changes in version `0.6.6' ===================================== The GNUstep system libraries are now installed in a separate system root directory (default /usr/GNUstep/System) rather than the GNUstep root directory (default /usr/GNUstep). You can revert to the old behavior using a configure option `--without-system-root'. We also recommend removing any previous GNUstep versions before installing the new one in order to avoid problems with the system finding the correct binary and/or library. Also a new XML documentation format (GSDoc) specifically for GNUstep and Objective-C documentation was added. Lots of documentation has already been written using this. A translater to HTML is included. Makefile Package * Support for Windows compilation (cygwin and mingw) and DLL creation and usage. * Java support rewritten and extended. Base Library: * Lots of new documentation. * Completely rewritten Distributed Object to be much more compatible with the MacOS-X API (and incidentally, closer to the original OpenStep standard). * Support to compile library as a DLL on Windows (still cygwin only). * Removed lots of obsolete classes. * New tools for handling property lists. * More optimization of classes. GUI Library: * Window hints for motif and generic window managers. * Major improvements to the text handling classes (NSText, NSTextView, etc) * Pasting of fonts and rulers. * Much better RTF handling * DnD for NSColorWell * Much improved NSSplitView * New classes - NSColorPanel, NSTableView * NSScreen rewritten with full support for all methods and functions. * Can use image reading routines from WindowMaker if available to read a variety of image formats besides TIFF. * Many fixes to get the AppKit to work better with WindowMaker. * Much better gmodel support (particularly with nibs translated from NeXT or OPENSTEP 4.2). * Muh improved font classes and font support. In addition both the xgps and xdps backends have seen some large efficiency improvements. Much better font support. The xdps backend itself has seen speed improvements by at least a factor of 4. Note however, that the xdps backend is still considered experimental and you may have to deal with many problems in order to get it working. We recommend sticking with the xgps backend (the default) for now. And of course, lots and lots of bug fixes and optimizations. Obtaining GNUstep ================= The gstep-core-0.6.6.tar.gz distribution file has been placed on `ftp.gnu.org' in `gnu/gstep'. It is also available at `ftp.gnustep.org' in `pub/gnustep/core'. There is also a lot of other software on this site, including other libraries, contributed code and user and developer applications
