In creating a pull request for GNUstep-base, the Free Software implementation of the Foundation library from Objective-C, I realised that if there was ever a time for GNUstep, now is it.

Although GNUstep may have been envisaged as an official desktop for the GNU system – a role now fulfilled by GNOME – it has always had another position as an alternative deployment venue for OpenStep, and then Cocoa, codebases. People have done this to obtain cross-platform support (I know of a test tool that was built for Mac, Linux and Windows using GNUstep), to take advantage of better, or cheaper, server deployment on Linux, or to act as an ‘escape lane’, a place to take your code if your platform vendor changes direction.

This ability to hedge against a vendor’s whims has come in handy before: in 2001, when WebObjects 5 ditched Objective-C support in favour of Java, Objective-C WebObjects applications could be deployed on modern platforms through GNUstep Web or on legacy WebObjects 4 systems. It may come in handy again.

Even if Apple do, indefinitely, support Objective-C, the plain fact is that their community does not. Conference talks, blog posts, and community discussion now take place using Swift, which for those with an interest in Objective-C or those supporting existing code makes it harder to gain help or even to feel membership.

A vendor-independent association of Objective-C developers all interested in giving their code a comfortable, stable home is now more important than ever. May all your messages have receivers.