Re: Wishlist of apps to port?

I successfully re-implemented NeXT's Preview app using libGS from
Ghostscript 9.
This was mostly an exercise in learning how to use libGS to later
re-implement a windowing server like NeXT's but using PDF code, which is
surprisingly easier given that imaging model's variable page size ;-)
Once that's done I'll re-write this previewer to just send the PDF code to
the server.

On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 9:50 PM Ethan C <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I've always thought that it would be good to try to port macOS
> applications to GNUstep, for a few reasons:
>
>    - It shows that GNUstep is complete enough to port real applications
>    - It helps show us in which areas we are weak or strong at
>    - It could potentially get us new users, especially for users who are
>    migrating from macOS to GNU/Linux or who use multiple operating systems
>    regularly
>
> The current wishlist on the wiki does not really have many good ideas for
> existing applications to port, so I looked for some high-quality
> Objective-C + AppKit applications that might be interesting (see the
> wishlist below). I'd like to hear your thoughts.
>
> So far, I think that iTerm2 would probably be one of the most complex
> things to do, but it would probably be quite popular. TextMate was formerly
> extremely popular, but is not as popular anymore as the v2 rewrite took
> much longer than expected. SubEthaEdit is quite innovative, but was quickly
> overtaken in popularity by TextMate.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ethan
> Wishlist of porting Mac apps
>
> This is mostly open-source Mac applications written in AppKit and
> Objective-C, which are either currently popular or were popular in the
> 2000s and 2010s.
>
> I did not include any Swift applications; we can evaluate that once we
> have a working Swift compiler with Objective-C bridging.
> Other lists to look at
>
>    - https://github.com/jaywcjlove/awesome-swift-macos-apps
>    - https://github.com/serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps
>
> I also asked ChatGPT for various historical applications, which I then
> reviewed myself to find some more detailed information and get rid of
> extraneous information.
> Objective-C + AppKit Terminals
>
>    - iTerm2 <https://iterm2.com/> (GitLab
>    <https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2>; GitHub mirror
>    <https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2>; GPL-2.0) -- extremely popular
>    terminal emulator
>       - There are dozens of discussions on Hacker News
>       <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=iterm2&sort=byPopularity&type=story>
>       if you want to see users' opinions
>          - Many users claim there are useful features not found in any
>          GNU/Linux terminal emulator
>       - Older versions
>          - 3.6.0 (2025-09-15) -- last version to support 10.15 Catalina
>          - 3.0.15 (2017-03-25) -- last version to support 10.8 Mountain
>          Lion
>          - Very old versions support 10.5 and 10.7
>       - Possibly difficult parts
>          - It currently includes a decent amount of Swift code; requires
>          macOS 12.4
>          - AppleScript
>          - Built-in web browser
>
> Editors
>
>    - TextMate <https://macromates.com/> (GitHub
>    <https://github.com/textmate/textmate>; GPL-3.0-or-later) -- formerly
>    extremely popular text editor
>       - Requires 10.12 Sierra or later
>       - Unmaintained since 2021
>    - SubEthaEdit <https://subethaedit.net/> (GitHub
>    <https://github.com/subethaedit/SubEthaEdit>; MIT license) --
>    real-time collaborative editor
>       - Requires 10.13 High Sierra or later
>       - Unmaintained since 2022
>
> PDF documents and LaTeX
>
>    - Skim <https://skim-app.sourceforge.io/> (SVN
>    <https://svn.code.sf.net/p/skim-app/code/trunk/>; BSD-3-Clause) -- PDF
>    reader and annotator
>       - Does not seem to include Swift code
>       - Development started in April 2007
>       - Popular for reading/annotating scientific papers
>       - PreSkim <https://github.com/scris/preskim> -- fork with Big Sur
>       user interface
>    - BibDesk <https://bibdesk.sourceforge.io/> (SVN
>    <https://sourceforge.net/p/bibdesk/svn/HEAD/tree/>) -- BibTeX
>    bibliography editor
>       - Development started in 2002
>       - Does not seem to include Swift code
>       - Possibly difficult parts
>          - AppleScript
>          - Built-in web browser for viewing Google Scholar
>       - TeXshop <https://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/> (GitHub mirror
>    <https://github.com/TeXShop/TeXShop>) -- LaTeX editor
>       - Development started in 2000
>       - Does not seem to include Swift code
>
> Media and graphics
>
>    - Vienna RSS <https://www.vienna-rss.com/> (GitHub
>    <https://github.com/ViennaRSS/vienna-rss>; Apache-2.0) -- RSS reader
>       - Possible difficulties
>          - Requires WebKit
>       - Cog <https://cog.losno.co/> (GitHub
>    <https://github.com/losnoco/cog>; GPL-2.0) -- Music player
>    - Seashore (GitHub) <https://github.com/robaho/seashore> (GPL-2.0) --
>    Simple image editor
>       - More details
>       <https://librearts.org/2019/01/meet-seashore-free-image-editor-for-macos/>
>       - Although originally based on GIMP, most GIMP code has been removed
>       - Discussion on Hacker News
>       <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31051991>
>       - Possible difficulties
>          - Heavy use of CoreGraphics and CoreAnimation
>
> Applications where we might be able to convince the author to release the
> code
>
>    - Pineapple News <https://www.platinumball.net/pineapple/news/macosx/>
>    -- Usenet newsreader
>       - "This version is totally free, and will not expire. I still use
>       it myself quite a lot, but active development has ceased. If anybody has a
>       burning desire to take over maintenance of the program, send me an e-mail."
>       - I don't think enough people use Usenet for this to be worthwhile
>       if it takes a lot of effort, but given its age it might be easy to port
>    - MailMate <https://freron.com/> -- Email client
>       - It's a very powerful client with low resource usage
>       - Although it is commercial software, all of the features are
>       available in the free version
>       - This is certainly less likely that we could convince the author
>       to release the code, but it is more likely than many other applications
>
>
>