Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox
From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.objective-c
Subject: Re: How's Stepstone/Objective-C doing?
Message-ID: <6737@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 1 Apr 91 17:12:45 GMT
References: <1991Mar30.165230.11364@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Organization: Stepstone
Lines: 40

In article <1991Mar30.165230.11364@sugar.hackercorp.com> karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:
>I'm interested in Objective-C, but I'm wondering about it.  Relative volumes
>in the C++ and Objective-C groups shows C++ is getting a lot more attention
>on the net; likewise, there are multiple C++ implementations for DOS, none
>for O-C that I know of (using DOS as a barometer).

The high interest in better technologies for fabricating gate- and 
block-level components as in C++ should not be confused with technologies,
such as Smalltalk and Objective-C, for assembling software from libraries 
of pre-fabricated chip-level components, or Software-ICs. In other words,
C++ is not a 'competitor' for Objective-C. It is a better C; a basis for
building a better Objective-C.

Objective-C is available on nearly all Unix platforms as well as on DOS and 
OS/2.  The only major platform that we do not presently support is 
Macintosh, and I'm working on that.  It is marketed for DOS platforms by 
Programmers Paradise, by Stepstone, and by Synetics. The latter provides 
browsers and user interface libraries for Windows 3.0, as opposed to 
Stepstone's libraries, with are oriented towards X-Windows. NeXT also
provides its own user interface environment, NeXTStep, which is based on
display postscript.

>The questions are, are there Objective-C vendors other than Stepstone?
>Are there forthcoming affordable implementations for "standard" 
>architectures, no matter how offensive those architectures may be?  Does
>anyone have a feel for how Stepstone themselves are doing, i.e. will they
>still be around a year or two, five years, from now?

Independent Objective-C implementations have been developed by Stepstone 
and by NeXT. These implementations are distributed and supported by
Stepstone, NeXT, Synetics, FSF, and others, including Programmer's
Paradise.

Stepstone will be eight years old this spring. During almost all of this 
time, we've been at the same address; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482. 
There are plans that I'm aware of to go anywhere but forward.
-- 

Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875
The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482