A GNUStep clone, “mySTEP”, has been released for the Sharp Zaurus Linux-based PDA, according to several NetNews posts, along with a runtime environment for the Zaurus called “myPDA” and a GCC cross compiler hosted on Mac OS X 10.3.

The mySTEP project remains in its infancy, according to reports, but already supports compiling Cocoa applications into “fat binaries” that can run on either a Mac OS X system or a Sharp Zaurus.

Dr. Nikolaus Schaller of the Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller Information Technology Research Initiative (DSITRI) made the announcement through the Usenet newsgroups 'gnu.gnustep.discuss' and 'comp.sys.handhelds'.

From Dr. Schaller's post:

“myPDA” (a clone of mGSTEP/GNUstep) is the runtime environment (an application that can be started from within Qtopia on the Zaurus). It shuts down Qtopia, starts the X11 server on the Zaurus, and a window manager, and launches myFinder (which itself is not yet working).

“mySTEP” provides shared libraries libFoundation, libAppKit, libABAddressBook, libPreferencePane, libSystemUI (MenuExtras) for the Zaurus-Linux. libFoundation is approx. 98% compatible. libAppKit implements approximately 70 percent of the Mac counterpart.

“Zaurus-gcc” is a binary distribution of the Cross compiler for installation on MacOS X – with direct integration into Xcode.

Read the complete text of Dr. Schaller's post here

What's GNUstep?

In case you're not familiar with GNUstep, here is a short overview from the GNUstep project's website: GNUstep is a “free, standard, object-oriented, cross-platform development environment that is meant to provide generalized visual interface design, a cohesive user interface, and look good as well. GNUstep is based on and is completely compatible with the OpenStep specification developed by NeXT (now Apple Computer Inc.).”

 
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