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by mhd 5062 days ago
Erm, Objective-C probably isn't the problem, even NeXt used gcc for that (not sure how much of the current feature bloat isn't in copyrighted libraries).

But GNUStep isn't exactly up to par with Cocoa, never mind not exactly the default desktop environment. Porting the whole editor from Obj-C++/Cocoa to C++/KDE or C/Gtk would be a pretty huge task, where you'd better off starting from scratch anyway (as with a lot of GUI apps, it's mostly about the ideas, not the implementation).

3 comments

Don't quote me on this but I don't think the later versions of Obj-C run on gcc, but llvm/clang. Whilst thats available outside the Mac realm it depends on whether it's specifically modified.

But yeah, you're right the Cocoa aspects are the bigger overhead, I should have been more clear.

Cocotron[1] attempts to be up to part with Cocoa though. I'm not sure if it would cover everything needed by TM, but it would be a pretty decent start.

[1] http://www.cocotron.org/

Considering that the only reason GNUStep isn't considered a totally failed project is the existence of Hurd, I wouldn't bet my money on creating a reasonably up-to-date cross-platform Cocoa/OpenStep clone. Try to see if the base Objective-C++ is working alright and create a GUI-independent layer, at least that way you'll get your native look-and-feel for free. But looking at the code, I think that'll excisce a lot of the core TM tech, so whether it's worth the conversion effort instead of just starting brand new is a pretty good question.
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