The NEXTSTEP/OpenStep/MacOS X is the main operating environment, used by OCSoftware. The main reason of this page is to show you why:

NeXTStep

NEXTSTEP operating system was developed by the NeXT company, founded by Steve Jobs in the 80s. No more historical or tech info here--you can find all the relevant information on the NeXT page. Instead, we will focus on the advantages of the NEXTSTEP environment for the vertical market.

Firstly, from the developer's viewpoint, NEXTSTEP has the very best development environment ever made. There are comprehensive libraries, containing not only GUI elements, but all the engine primitives as well, such as general arrays and lists, hashed dictionaries, and much more. Besides, entire system is fully object-oriented. Summed up, it gives in average five to ten times shorter development cycle than any other environment (including the RADs).

Secondly, NEXTSTEP is highly interesting even from the user's viewpoint. There is its GUI, much better than the current Macintosh one--not speaking of Windoze or Motiff or alike. Moreover, NEXTSTEP is based on the MACH microkernel, which is extremely stable: I restart my computer, I guess, ten or so times a year--while developing applications, including kernel drives.

All in all, you can find no comparable environment for large, proprietary applications. The system is easy to use, stable, and the application development is fast--which means also cheap. The price of the operating system itself--which might be prohibitive in plain office applications--then becomes definitely worth the benefits.

OpenStep, MacOS X, PDO

OpenStep is not a software; OpenStep is a specification. A specification of a complete, full-featured, object-oriented API--or, rather, the API, for there is no other open object-oriented system. Possibly you know POSIX API; the OpenStep doesn't terribly differ; only its services are much more comprehensive, and are defined in class/object terms, instead of the function/data terms of classical programming.

The OpenStep API can run under any operating environment, which offers some primitive services (such as a virtual memory, pre-emptive multitasking, task protection, and so forth). So far there are three OpenStep implementations: two different OpenStep/MACH ones (aka NEXTSTEP 4 or MacOS X), OpenStep/NT, and OpenStep/Solaris. The latter is made by Sun (which has also participated on the development of the OpenStep standard), while the former two were made by NeXT and currently are owned and developed by Apple. Recently, Apple bought NeXT, and had it develop the OpenStep/Macintosh, aka MacOS X (the OpenStep/MACH and OpenStep/NT--and other NeXT's products--are supported by Apple now). Besides, there is the GNUStep project--a free implementation of OpenStep for any nevironment (including the free Linux), and sometimes there are rumors DEC considers its own OpenStep/DECunix implementation.

From the developer's viewpoint OpenStep doesn't much differ from the NEXTSTEP. Naturally, OpenStep lacks the MACH services and the BSD and POSIX APIs of NEXTSTEP; instead, there is number of fully portable class-level services. The main advantage--the short and cheap development cycle--is retained; moreover, OpenStep brings full portability to any other OpenStep implementation. On the other hand, the GUI and the stability depends on the host operating environment; you can develop and run OpenStep applications under Windows NT, but you get what you have paid for.

There is an individual product, which allows development of OpenStep-compatible server only applications, called PDO (Portable Distributed Objects). It lacks all the GUI-related parts of OpenStep, but it offers all its engine services (including, as the name shows, the CORBA compliant distributed objects). The PDO is much cheaper than the whole OpenStep, and is available for much more host environments; for the up to date information have a look at the NeXT page. The PDO implementation for the Windoze is called D'OLE, since it allows communication with the OLE pseudo objects.

Why Not to Join the Big Windoze Family?

There are more Windows installation on PCs than any other operating environment ones. There is no new hardware without Windows drivers. Almost any general application had been ported to Windows... why, then, not simply join the mainstream, and develop there? Well, there are reasons:

Firstly, even with all the new visual tools, the Windows development is many times more difficult than the OpenStep one. While it definitely is worth for general applications (like wordprocessors or spreadsheets), which can easily benefit from the huge market, it can be prohibitive in case of large proprietary applications.

The Windows environment is a particularly dull one, and can itself become a limitation for the application. A good example might be the Lotus Improv spreadsheet: a very successful NEXTSTEP product, envied by all non-NEXTSTEP users, had been ported to Windows--and failed. The lack of services in Windows made the developers to omit many of the original features, hence the result was only a poor shadow of the original Improv.

Moreover, large proprietary applications almost invariably depend on reliable and effective network middleware. The OpenStep environment offers full-featured distributed objects (compatible with the CORBA specifications, and able to co-operate with Windows' OLE pseudo objects). In fact, the development of a client/server or distributed application in OpenStep is virtually as easy as the development of a plain one.

Last but not least, there is the issue of the portability. Whilst the raw number of Windows installations is many times bigger than the OpenStep ones, the OpenStep is an open specification. Any OpenStep application, developed, say, under OpenStep/NT, can be easily used in OpenStep/Solaris, or under the MacOS X on Macintosh.

More Interesting Informations...

The very best NEXTSTEP and OpenStep related server is the Stepwise server. Try also the Peanuts archive, or the FTP archive next-ftp.peak.org. And of course, the definite places for any NEXTSTEP and OpenStep-related information are Apple's site, and the NeXT site, maintained by Apple.

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