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#41
Software / Turbolent's projects: drivers,...
Last post by Rhetorica - May 18, 2026, 07:45 PM@netdoll just shared these amazing undertakings from Turbolent today:
To get things out of the way—pTek will be disappointed to learn that all of this is for OPENSTEP 4.2 only and will not work on NEXTSTEP 3.3. Sorry, buddy.
The interceptor example is here: https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-interceptor-example
Interceptors are a framework for hooking/wrapping function calls after the main code is already written.
gcc 3.1 is part of the package manager repo, here: https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-pkg
This should mean that we can now compile stuff with a much newer x86 instruction set, since it's from OS X 10.2.
Looking through Turbolent's other repos, I noticed two drivers, both of which are quite young:
Driver for Bus Master IDE: https://github.com/turbolent/BusMasterIDE (3 weeks ago)
Driver for RTL8139 ethernet devices: https://github.com/turbolent/RTL8139 (2 weeks ago!)
I'm sure that'll save a few people a lot of pain.
Quote
- Simple package manager for OPENSTEP with some ports of common open source tools, including GCC 3 and a relatively recent OpenSSH: github.com/turbolent/openstep-pkg
- also figured out how to use OPENSTEP's private Interceptor framework: https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-interceptor-example[/color]. It was used in SoftPC for directly drawing the video output. Given it's private, there is basically no documentation for the NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP APIs, and only some vague WWDC slides for the public Rhapsody variant (which has a different API). The only hint I could luckily find was in the Quake 2 code
- looks like Apple's GCC 3.1 from Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar works on OPENSTEP 4.2:
Quoteopenstep> gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/i386-next-openstep4/3.1/specs
Configured with: ../configure --build=i386-next-openstep4 --host=i386-next-openstep4 --prefix=/usr/local --enable-languages=c,c++,objc --disable-shared
Thread model: single
Apple Computer, Inc. GCC version 1257, based on gcc version 3.1 20021003 (prerelease)
To get things out of the way—pTek will be disappointed to learn that all of this is for OPENSTEP 4.2 only and will not work on NEXTSTEP 3.3. Sorry, buddy.
The interceptor example is here: https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-interceptor-example
Interceptors are a framework for hooking/wrapping function calls after the main code is already written.
gcc 3.1 is part of the package manager repo, here: https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-pkg
This should mean that we can now compile stuff with a much newer x86 instruction set, since it's from OS X 10.2.
Looking through Turbolent's other repos, I noticed two drivers, both of which are quite young:
Driver for Bus Master IDE: https://github.com/turbolent/BusMasterIDE (3 weeks ago)
Driver for RTL8139 ethernet devices: https://github.com/turbolent/RTL8139 (2 weeks ago!)
I'm sure that'll save a few people a lot of pain.
#42
Software / Re: Switching Between Windows
Last post by ptek - May 18, 2026, 03:28 AM@tygre here is the file windowPackage.ps from NS2.1 which has comments so it should make it easier for you to understand. Ripped with NFS on Previous.
#43
Software / Re: Switching Between Windows
Last post by ZombiePhysicist - May 17, 2026, 11:52 AMVery cool, @ptek
Feels almost small talk'esque to b\e able to use postscript to alter the behavior of the windowing.
Feels almost small talk'esque to b\e able to use postscript to alter the behavior of the windowing.
#44
Off Topic / Re: Why Objective-C
Last post by ZombiePhysicist - May 17, 2026, 11:40 AMLate binding was a big deal.
#45
General Discussion / Re: List of NeXT related resou...
Last post by ptek - May 17, 2026, 10:15 AMTjL's NeXTStep/OpenStep Site also has some information about swap files.
#46
General Discussion / Re: Steve Jobs’s Wilderness Y...
Last post by jeffburg - May 17, 2026, 09:40 AMQuote from: Rhetorica on May 15, 2026, 05:04 PMIt really is an annoying bit of the victors writing the history books, isn't it? Little do most Apple lifestylers know, the company they knew died in 1997 and was replaced by NeXT management and engineering, wearing Apple's skin...
This is actually so true and why I think it's hard to find a retro tech community for my interests. I like hanging out on Tinker Different, but honestly, the only parts of that forum that have activity are for Macs that run the classic OS and I'm sorry, I just have 0 interest in that. I used those Macs in high school, and they were terrible. I post a bit about my explorations with my G4 iMac proudly running Mac OS X and the other forum members have little interest in OS X Macs. In fact they value the 2000's era Macs that can still run Mac OS 9... no idea why lol. I suppose I just need more time to pass. I think right now the 2000's Macs have not yet become old enough for people to clamor over them... but it will come. Haha.
And same goes for reverse here, I hope this doesn't offend any members here, but in my opinion if you are a NeXT fan, you have to use a Mac. I am still running NeXTSTEP, it's just much newer and shinier, but the guts are still the same. This was totally my experience when making MathEdit. The amount of changes I needed to make to the app to get it to work on both OPENSTEP 4.2 and on macOS Tahoe were not as large as you think. Not to mention it also runs in GNUStep. So yeah. I love my shiny aluminum ARM64 NeXTSTATION
#47
General Discussion / Re: Steve Jobs’s Wilderness Y...
Last post by Adam_Hall - May 16, 2026, 09:36 AMThe problem was that NeXT software and hardware was slow and the software was few and far between. A good idea on paper but the hardware was just not ready to run it. The real success came with releasing the iphone. I would argue this had nothing to do with NeXT and perhaps had everything to do with Steve Jobs. I love NeXT software, but I often think I like the promise of it, but I can't help but notice it was implemented on hardware that was not really fast enough to run it IMHO.
#48
General Discussion / Re: Steve Jobs’s Wilderness Y...
Last post by Adam_Hall - May 16, 2026, 09:30 AMIMHO NeXT employees saved Apple.
#49
General Discussion / Re: Steve Jobs’s Wilderness Y...
Last post by Rhetorica - May 15, 2026, 05:04 PMIt really is an annoying bit of the victors writing the history books, isn't it? Little do most Apple lifestylers know, the company they knew died in 1997 and was replaced by NeXT management and engineering, wearing Apple's skin...
#50
General Discussion / Steve Jobs’s Wilderness Years...
Last post by marvin - May 15, 2026, 03:43 PMSteve Jobs's Wilderness Years Shaped His Success as Apple CEO
A new book recalls forgotten lessons from his time at NeXT Computer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/steve-jobs-next-computer
A new book recalls forgotten lessons from his time at NeXT Computer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/steve-jobs-next-computer
QuoteWhenever you read about Steve Jobs, odds are the words "Apple CEO" follow closely behind. The mythic cofounder of
one of today's biggest tech companies is strongly associated with the role, but his tenure as CEO was shorter than many of us realize.
In fact, when Jobs was exiled from Apple in the 1980s and '90s, he spent almost as much time leading another computer company that has largely been forgotten: NeXT Computer. In his forthcoming book Steve Jobs in Exile, journalist and author Geoffrey Cain tells the story of Jobs's years at NeXT Computer from 1985 to 1997.