What is Backbone?
Backbone is an attempt (our attempt) at creating a Really Good Desktop. The metric we use for "Really Good" is our own. In short, to us, Really Good means to carry on the NeXTSTEP® and OPENSTEP® spirit. In more detail:
Interface
We want a clean, efficient, and consistent interface. We want a look and feel that helps us get work done, without attracting attention or getting in the way. We want applications to be consistent, and to make good use of the features of our interface.
Development Environment
The development environment will be based on the highly dynamic (and really nice, and very Object-Oriented) language Objective-C, and the core GNUstep libraries.
Integration
We want to build an environment that actually acts as a integrated environment and not as a bunch of individual apps. We plan on doing this by extending the OPENSTEP service and filter concepts, by extensively providing and using "application services", and by providing an inter-app scripting system.
What will Backbone itself actually provide?
- Libraries that will be used to provide common desktop functionality in Backbone applications.
- Basic programs and tools for the desktop environment (these will provide functionality similar to that of a window manager).
- A set of basic applications.
- End-user documentation for the environment.
- Documentation and guidelines for writing Backbone applications.