Foundation controversy.

[Garance A Drosehn]

I (Garance) wrote:
> ... but in any case it's clear that we're going to be seeing
> OpenStep applications which will run on NS-3.3 but won't run on
> earlier system releases.

Uh, well, that's not right...  Real OpenStep applications will only
run on NS-4.0; they won't run on NS-3.3 any more than earlier NS
releases.  The FoundationKit is just a major step on the way to
the full OpenStep specification, it isn't the whole thing.

> People running the earlier system releases better start planning
> for that fact very soon now, and not bother beating up on the
> first apps which happen to make that requirement clear.

However, my point is pretty much the same.  Anyone who isn't planning
on any NeXTSTEP upgrades should start thinking about the fact that
the upcoming OpenStep apps will not run on the current system
releases.  I'm sure that companies which already *have* applications
written for NS-3.x aren't going to destroy them all just to spite
their customers, but any brand new applications that are being
written right now will probably show up for FoundationKit, and soon
new applications will be targetted for the full-blown OpenStep.

If you were a developer, which market would you target?

a. NeXTSTEP only
b. NeXTSTEP 4.0, plus Solaris 2.5 (2.6?), plus WindowsNT,
                 plus Windows95, plus Digitals Unix.

I believe each one of those "plusses" is a larger market than
everyone in choice A, even though the NeXTSTEP 4.0-only piece
drops all NeXTSTEP 3.x users from that potential market.

---
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad at eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA