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OpenStep is an object-oriented API specification for an object-oriented operating system that uses any modern operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT with Sun Microsystems. It is important to recognize that while OpenStep is an API specification, OPENSTEP (all capitalized) is a specific implementation of this OpenStep developed by NeXT. While originally built on a Mach-based Unix (such as the core of NEXTSTEP), versions of OPENSTEP were available for Solaris and Windows NT as well. Furthermore the OPENSTEP libraries (the libraries that shipped with the OPENSTEP operating system) are in fact a superset of the original OpenStep specification. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) description: Screenshot of OPENSTEP Desktop on Windows NT source: http://flickr. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) description: Screenshot of OPENSTEP Desktop on Windows NT source: http://flickr. ...
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ...
API and Api redirect here. ...
An object-oriented operating system is an operating system which internally uses object-oriented methodologies. ...
For other meanings, see Next. ...
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...
The NeXT logo, designed by Paul Rand. ...
Mach is an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation. ...
Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ...
NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...
Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ...
Windows NT (New Technology) is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. ...
History The OpenStep API was created as the result of a 1993 collaboration between NeXT Computer and Sun Microsystems, allowing this cut-down version of NeXT's NEXTSTEP operating system object layers to be run on Sun's Solaris operating system (more specifically, Solaris on SPARC-based hardware). Most of the OpenStep effort was to strip away those portions of NEXTSTEP that depended on Mach or NeXT-specific hardware being present. This resulted in a smaller system that consisted primarily of Display PostScript, the Objective-C runtime and compilers, and the majority of the NEXTSTEP Objective-C libraries. Not included was the basic operating system, or the display system. For other meanings, see Next. ...
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...
NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...
// An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ...
Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ...
Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ...
NeXT Computer Inc. ...
Objective-C, often referred to as ObjC or more seldomly as Objective C or Obj-C, is an object oriented programming language implemented as an extension to C. It is used primarily on Mac OS X and GNUstep, two environments based on the OpenStep standard, and is the primary language...
The first draft of the API was published by NeXT in summer 1994. Later that year they released an OpenStep compliant version of their flagship operating system NEXTSTEP running on several of their supported platforms and rebranded it OPENSTEP. Confusingly, this OPENSTEP release also ran on Sun SPARC hardware, independent of Solaris. OPENSTEP remained NeXT's primary operating system product until they were purchased by Apple Computer in 1997. OPENSTEP was then combined with technologies from the existing Mac OS to produce Mac OS X. // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ...
NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...
Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ...
Apple Inc. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...
Sun originally adopted the OpenStep environment with the intent of complementing Sun's CORBA-compliant object system, Solaris NEO (formerly known as Project DOE), by providing an object-oriented user interface toolkit to complement the object-oriented CORBA plumbing. The port involved integrating the OpenStep AppKit with the Display PostScript layer of the Sun X11 server, making the AppKit tolerant of multi-threaded code (as Project DOE was inherently heavily multi-threaded), implementing a Solaris daemon to simulate the behavior of Mach ports, extending the SunPro C++ compiler to support Objective-C using NeXT's ObjC runtime, writing an X11 window manager to implement the NEXTSTEP look and feel as much as possible, and integrating the NeXT development tools, such as Project Manager and Interface Builder, with the SunPro compiler. In order to provide a complete end-user environment, Sun also ported the NEXTSTEP-3.3 versions of several end-user applications, including Mail.app, Preview.app, Edit.app, Workspace Manager, and the dock. In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard for software componentry, created and controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG). ...
Distributed Objects Everywhere (DOE) was a long-running Sun Microsystems project to build a distributed computing environment based on the CORBA system in the back end and OpenStep as the user interface. ...
In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard for software componentry, created and controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG). ...
NeXT Computer Inc. ...
In computing, the X Window System (commonly X11 or X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays. ...
Mach is an operating system microkernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation. ...
Objective-C, often referred to as ObjC or more seldomly as Objective C or Obj-C, is an object oriented programming language implemented as an extension to C. It is used primarily on Mac OS X and GNUstep, two environments based on the OpenStep standard, and is the primary language...
A window manager is computer software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. ...
The OpenStep and CORBA parts of the products were later split, and NEO was released in late 1995 without the OpenStep environment. In March 1996, Sun announced Joe, a product to integrate NEO with Java. Sun shipped a beta release of the OpenStep environment for Solaris on July 22, 1996,[1] and made it freely available for download in August 1996 for non-commercial use, and for sale in September 1996. OpenStep/Solaris only shipped for the SPARC architecture. In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard for software componentry, created and controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG). ...
Distributed Objects Everywhere (DOE) was a long-running Sun Microsystems project to build a distributed computing environment based on the CORBA system in the back end and OpenStep as the user interface. ...
“Java language†redirects here. ...
is the 203rd day of the year (204th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ...
Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ...
Description The API OpenStep contrasts with the earlier NEXTSTEP primarily in five ways: - OpenStep describes only the upper-level libraries and services (like Display PostScript), whereas NEXTSTEP referred to both these libraries and the operating system as well.
- removal of any code depending entirely on the Mach kernel, so that OpenStep could be run on top of any reasonably powerful operating system.
- a significant amount of effort was put into making the system "endian-free", an issue NeXT had already faced during a port of NEXTSTEP to the Intel platform.
- low-level objects such as strings were represented with C data types in NEXTSTEP, whereas in OpenStep a number of new classes (NSString, NSNumber, etc.) were introduced to support endian-conversion as well as provide added functionality and become platform-independant. This had ripple-effects throughout the API, mostly for the better. This set of classes (a framework) was called the Foundation Kit, or just Foundation for short.
- memory management evolved from a simple alloc/free mechanism to a new retain/release paradigm: If a piece of code needs to keep an object valid, it retains it, and when it doesn't need it anymore, it releases it.
The API specification itself is composed of the two main sets of object oriented classes: the GUI and graphics front-end known as the Application Kit, and the aforementioned Foundation Kit. NeXT Computer Inc. ...
Mach is an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation. ...
In computing, endianness is the byte (and sometimes bit) ordering in memory used to represent some kind of data. ...
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ...
The Foundation Kit, or just Foundation for short, is a framework specified under the OpenStep specification. ...
In computer science, object-oriented programming, OOP for short, is a computer programming paradigm. ...
GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ...
The Application Kit is called AppKit under OpenStep and provides all of the gui classes. ...
However, OpenStep also specified the use of Display PostScript, a versatile and powerful PostScript-based method of drawing windows and graphics on screen. NeXT, with its devotion to implementing object-oriented solutions, supplied pswraps for interfacing C code to Display PostScript. pswraps acted in an encapsulative way and was somewhat object oriented. The Application Kit, Foundation, and Display PostScript comprise the three key technologies in the OpenStep specification; however, Display PostScript was featured in older NeXT technologies, such as NEXTSTEP. NeXT Computer Inc. ...
For the literary term, see Postscript. ...
NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...
Building On OpenStep The standardization on OpenStep also allowed for the creation of several new library packages that were delivered on the OPENSTEP platform. Unlike the operating system as a whole, these packages were designed to run stand-alone on practically any operating system. The idea was to use OpenStep code as a basis for network-wide applications running across different platforms, as opposed to using CORBA or some other system. Stand-alone is a confusing and misleading term, used to refer to various categories of computer programs, but rarely in a consistent fashion. ...
In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard for software componentry, created and controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG). ...
Primary among these packages was Portable Distributed Objects (PDO). PDO was essentially an even more "stripped down" version of OpenStep containing only the Foundation Kit technologies, combined with new libraries to provide remote invocation with very little code. Unlike OpenStep, which defined an operating system that applications would run in, under PDO the libraries were compiled into the application itself, creating a stand-alone "native" application for a particular platform. PDO was small enough to be easily portable, and versions were released for all major server vendors. Portable Distributed Objects, or PDO, is a programming API for creating object oriented code that runs anywhere on a network of computers. ...
A remote procedure call (RPC) is a protocol that allows a computer program running on one host to cause code to be executed on another host without the programmer needing to explicitly code for this. ...
PDO became somewhat infamous in the mid-1990s when NeXT staff took to writing in solutions to various CORBA magazine articles in a few lines of code, whereas the original article would fill several pages. Even though using PDO required the installation of a considerable amount of supporting code (Objective-C and the libraries), PDO applications were nevertheless considerably smaller than similar CORBA solutions, typically about one-half to one-third the size.
The similar D'OLE provided the same types of services, but presented the resulting objects as DCOM objects, with the goal of allowing programmers to create DCOM services running on high-powered platforms, called from Microsoft Windows applications. For instance one could develop a high-powered financial modelling application using D'OLE, and then call it directly from within Microsoft Excel. When D'OLE was first released, OLE by itself only communicated between applications running on a single machine. PDO enabled NeXT to demonstrate Excel talking to other Microsoft applications across a network before Microsoft themselves were able to implement this functionality. DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) is a Microsoft proprietary technology for software components distributed across several networked computers. ...
Windows redirects here. ...
Microsoft Excel (full name Microsoft Office Excel) is a spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. It features calculation and graphing tools which, along with aggressive marketing, have made Excel one of the most popular microcomputer applications to date. ...
Another package developed on OpenStep was Enterprise Objects Framework (EOF), a tremendously powerful (for the time) object-relational mapping product. EOF became very popular in the enterprise market, notably in the financial sector where OPENSTEP caused something of a minor revolution. The Enterprise Objects Framework (or more commonly, EOF) was introduced by NeXT in 1994 as a pioneering object-relational mapping product for its NeXTSTEP and OpenStep development platforms. ...
Object-Relational mapping (aka O/RM, ORM, and O/R mapping) is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in databases and object-oriented programming languages. ...
Implementations
OPENSTEP/Mach NeXT's first operating system was NEXTSTEP, a sophisticated Mach-UNIX based operating system that was ported to run on several architectures (PA-RISC, SPARC, i386 and 68k). However, NeXT's new direction for NEXTSTEP was to free the operating system libraries from being tied to UNIX and becoming more device independent. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 99 KB) Summary Screenshot of OPENSTEPs Workspace Manager window with desktop, taken by myself. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 99 KB) Summary Screenshot of OPENSTEPs Workspace Manager window with desktop, taken by myself. ...
NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ...
PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packards Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. ...
Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ...
The Intel 80386 is a microprocessor which was used as the central processing unit (CPU) of many personal computers from 1986 until 1994 and later. ...
The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector). ...
NeXT completed an implementation of OpenStep on their existing Mach-based OS and called it OpenStep for Mach 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2. It was, for all intents, NEXTSTEP 4.0, and still retained flagship NEXTSTEP technologies (such as DPS, UNIX underpinnings, user interface characteristics like the Dock and Shelf, and so on), and retained the classic NEXTSTEP user interface and styles. OPENSTEP/Mach was further improved, in comparison to NEXTSTEP 3.3, with vastly improved driver support – however the environment to actually write drivers was changed with the introduction of the object-oriented DriverKit. NeXT Computer Inc. ...
Comparison of docks in Avant Window Navigator on Ubuntu, Mac OS X Leopard, and Suns Project Looking Glass The Dock in Mac OS X is an application; this is its icon. ...
The Shelf is an interface feature in NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, and is used as a repository to store links to commonly used files, directories and programs, and as a temporary holding place to move/copy files and directories around in the filesystem hierarchy. ...
OPENSTEP/Mach supported Intel x86, Sun's SPARC and NeXT's own Motorola based 68k architectures, while the HP PA-RISC version was dropped. These versions continued to run on the underlying Mach-based OS used in NEXTSTEP. OPENSTEP/Mach became NeXT's primary OS from 1995 on, and was used mainly on the Intel platform. In addition to being a complete OpenStep implementation, the system was delivered with a complete set of NEXTSTEP libraries for backward compatibility. This was an easy thing to do in OpenStep due to library versioning, and OPENSTEP did not suffer in bloat because of it. x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ...
Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ...
The Motorola 680x0, 0x0, m68k, or 68k family of CISC microprocessor CPU chips were 32_bit from the start, and were the primary competition for the Intel x86 family of chips. ...
PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packards Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. ...
OPENSTEP Solaris In addition to the OPENSTEP/Mach port for SPARC, Sun and NeXT developed an OpenStep compliant set of frameworks to run on Sun's Solaris operating system. After developing OPENSTEP Solaris, Sun lost interest in OpenStep and shifted its attention toward Java. As a virtual machine development environment, Java served as a direct competitor to OpenStep. Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ...
OPENSTEP Enterprise NeXT also delivered an implementation running on top of Windows NT 4.0 called OPENSTEP Enterprise (often abbreviated OSE). This was an unintentional demonstration on the true nature of the portability of programs created under the OpenStep specification. Programs for OPENSTEP/Mach could be ported to OSE with little difficulty. This allowed their existing customer base to continue using their tools and applications, but running them inside the Windows system which many of them were in the process of switching to. Never a clean match from the UI perspective -- probably due to OPENSTEP's routing of window graphics through the Display Postscript server, which was also ported to Windows -- OSE nevertheless managed to work fairly well and allowed OpenStep to exist for perhaps another year.
OPENSTEP and OSE had two revisions (and one major one that was never released) before NeXT was purchased by Apple in 1997.
Rhapsody, Mac OS X Server 1.0 -
After acquiring NeXT, Apple intended to ship Rhapsody as a reworked version of OPENSTEP/Mach for both the Mac and standard PCs. Rhapsody was OPENSTEP/Mach with a Copland appearance from Mac OS 8 and support for Java and Apple's own technologies, including ColorSync and QuickTime; it could be regarded as OPENSTEP 5. Two developer versions of Rhapsody were released, known as Developer Preview 1 and 2, these ran on both Intel and PowerPC hardware, though with lacking support for nonstandard hardware. Mac OS X Server 1.0 was the first commercial release of this operating system, and was delivered exclusively for PowerPC Mac hardware. Rhapsody was the code name given to Apple Computers next-generation operating system during the period of its development between Apples purchase of NeXT in late 1996 and the announcement of Mac OS X in 1998. ...
Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...
Mac OS X Server is the server-oriented version of Apples desktop operating system, Mac OS X. Mac OS X, in both desktop and server versions, is a Unix-like operating system based on technology that Apple acquired from NeXT Computer. ...
A Cocoa application being developed using Xcode. ...
Rhapsody was the code name given to Apple Computers next-generation operating system during the period of its development between Apples purchase of NeXT in late 1996 and the announcement of Mac OS X in 1998. ...
Copland was a project at Apple Computer to create an updated version of the Macintosh operating system. ...
Mac OS 8 is a series of versions of the Mac OS that supported a transition through major changes in the Macintosh hardware platform. ...
Mac OS X Server 1. ...
Mac OS X 10.0 and later After replacing the Display Postscript WindowServer with one based on PDF, and responding to developers by including better backward compatibility for Mac OS applications through the addition of Carbon, Apple released Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, starting at version 10.0. Carbon is the codename of Apple Computers API for the Macintosh operating system, which permits a good degree of forward and backward compatibility between source code written to run on the classic Mac OS, and the newer Mac OS X. The APIs are published and accessed in the form...
Mac OS X (IPA: ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ...
Mac OS X Server is the server-oriented version of Apples desktop operating system, Mac OS X. Mac OS X, in both desktop and server versions, is a Unix-like operating system based on technology that Apple acquired from NeXT Computer. ...
Mac OS X's primary programming environment is essentially OpenStep (with certain additions such as XML property lists and URL classes for Internet connections) with Mac OS X ports of the development libraries and tools, now called Cocoa. However, Mac OS X diverges from the OpenStep specification to the point that it is now closer to NeXTSTEP as a product. Mac OS X 10.0 could be considered NeXTSTEP 5. Apple's internal versioning of Darwin, the open source code comprising the core OS and kernel of Mac OS X, follows this numbering. A Cocoa application being developed using Xcode. ...
Darwin is a free and open source, Unix-like operating system first released by Apple Inc. ...
Mac OS X has since become the single most popular Unix in the world,[2] although Mac OS X is no longer an OpenStep compliant operating system.
GNUstep -
GNUstep, a free software implementation of the NeXT libraries, began at the time of NEXTSTEP, predating OPENSTEP. While OPENSTEP and OSE were purchased by Apple, who effectively ended the commercial development of implementing OpenStep for other platforms, GNUstep is an ongoing open source project aiming to create a portable, free software implementation of the OPENSTEP libraries. GNUstep is a free software implementation of NeXTs OpenStep Objective-C libraries (called frameworks), widget toolkit, and application development tools not only for Unix-like operating systems, but also for Microsoft Windows. ...
This article is about free software as used in the sociopolitical free software movement; for non-free software distributed without charge, see freeware. ...
For other meanings, see Next. ...
This article is about free software as used in the sociopolitical free software movement; for non-free software distributed without charge, see freeware. ...
The Foundation and AppKit libraries are completed with the exception of a few classes which are rarely used. GNUstep also features a fully functional development environment. GNUstep also features reimplementations of some of the newer innovations from Mac OS X's Cocoa framework, as well as its own extensions to the API. A Cocoa application being developed using Xcode. ...
References For information on Wikipedia press releases, see Wikipedia:Press releases. ...
Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For information on Wikipedia press releases, see Wikipedia:Press releases. ...
Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 357th day of the year (358th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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