Re: A good starting point

[Nicola Pero]

> Hi,
> 
> I'm just starting to look at Obj-C & Cocoa/GnuStep.
> 
> I have lot's of mac's & so I can use XCode etc.  For my current uni 
> subject I need to work on linux or windows - both foreign territory to 
> me.
> 
> Does anyone have any recommendations for a good starting point for a 
> novice?
> 
> i.e. FreeBSD, Linux (which type?), Windows (mingw or cygwin)
> 
> What I don't need is hassles setting up the system.

Depends where the hassles come from - if we are only talking of the
hassles configuring, compiling and installing GNUstep, then obviously
linux should be the most tested one.

So if you're in complete darkness, my suggestion would be to try a
well-known linux distribution (RedHat, Debian, Fedora, Mandrake ...  
something like that).  GNUstep should work on those as much out of the box 
as possible (using WindowMaker as your window manager will help, so look 
for that option in the distribution).

I don't think I can offer real help on which distribution is easier from a
user point of view -- you can look on the web or at magazines or ask
people.  Keep in mind you probably want to use WindowMaker as that would
help you get a gui system running well with fewer hassles.  So if you can
select a distribution where that is easily available, that might be the
only thing I can think of which could make it a little bit easier.

Other unix systems (eg *BSD) should also be reasonably good, a bit less 
tested, but you might have reasons to prefer those (maybe you've got a 
friend who knows a lot about that, or you have personal preferences).

I would leave Windows last as I suspect that, between the ones you listed,
Windows is really the most difficult system to install GNUstep on, -- the
gui might be difficult and somewhat unstable there.

Hope that helps