I admit that I have never added an NSSlider in code before, but I saw in the #OpenStep documentation that it has a -setTitle: property. However, I tried to use this and in Xcode I got this quite stern warning

'setTitle:' is deprecated: first deprecated in macOS 10.9 - -setTitle: had no effect since 10.0

But after trying it, it appears it has no effect in OpenStep either. I want to know the back story here. What happened?? lol

Omg. This is so dangerous. A bunch NeXT black hardware just dropped on Japanese Yahoo. I must resist. I have no space for this stuff… but I want it so badly! #OpenStep

It doesn't look great, but yes [Not]Soulver for #OpenStep builds and runs with no issues in Xcode 26 and macOS 26. I think I just need to pick some new button styles and it will be fully up and running again #wwdc25

Ok, so I admit the view is not very complex, but in [Not]Soulver for #OpenStep, I don't need any overly complex autolayout code. Just a few autoresizing masks will allow for the expected behavior. Here is a video of the same Objective-C code running 30 years apart with the exact same result! Pretty cool!

https://github.com/jeffreybergier/NotSoulver/commit/c70a7ffe564a46e4158ba9587526b1bc661b76c6

And there it is folks! [Not]Soulver for #OpenStep is now Universal binary that runs natively on my M1 MacBook Air! Wow, what a journey! I will still be polishing some small problems but I have now accomplished my goal!

I am now running a native OpenStep app written in Objective-C with:
No Swift
No Automatic Reference Counting
No Property Synthesization
No Blocks
No Fast Enumeration
No Collection Literals
No Dispatch Queues

Quite amazing that Apple has been able to maintain source compatibility in Foundation and AppKit for 30 years!

Please try it yourself! It’s not notarized (that will come later), but it should run on your Apple Silicon Mac.

https://github.com/jeffreybergier/NotSoulver/commit/6afe081c7a7dc8f3895ce730a534366d996c6a19

Does this work? I’d make it look better too.

I’m always embarrassed to see a recording of myself, but here it is… My try! Swift Tokyo 2025 Talk!

“I made a NeXTSTEP App or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Objective-C”

https://youtu.be/dwpsVqsQG5s?si=lpV4nFQmyplFlbXU

Thinking of NEXTSTEP this morning...I'd guess many aren't aware of the unusual color display arrangement.

The NeXTstation, which was the first "affordable" color solution for NEXTSTEP, has a 16-bit framebuffer, but instead of rendering the desktop in 65,536 colors (as per Windows or Mac hardware, say), it rendered in 12-bit color with 4-bits of alpha channel (transparency).

That means it had a palette of 4096 colors, with all colors available at once on the display (not like, say, the Amiga or Apple IIgs with a 4096 color palette, but video modes with a small subset of those colors available (yes, yes, HAM mode excluded). Additionally, anything on the screen had 16 levels of opacity available.

It's interesting to see in person, on the actual hardware (especially on a good LCD display). With dithering, it looks very close to 24-bit truecolor.

(The NeXT Dimension color board for the Cube allowed 24-bit color with 8-bits alpha, but that was not so frequently used -- less so than most NeXT hardware even...)

But that's not nearly the weirdest that NEXTSTEP-capable hardware got, when it came to color video display...

Remember if you have one of the elderly #sun #sparc systems and the OBP asks for a pwd. Boot into OBP then remove the idprom (THEN press n) and you can setenv security-mode none .. My SS5 with S24 and #openstep 4.2 SPARC. As beautiful as my #amiga 3000 pizzabox

Ok folks, I know you've all been waiting in anticipation for more [Not]Soulver for #OpenStep updates!

But now that I got my Virtual Machine monster of an Intel iMac server going I have a big and beautiful 1080p OpenStep workspace. So please enjoy this update.

I added Root and Logarithm support to [Not]Soulver.

https://github.com/jeffreybergier/NotSoulver/pull/10/files

I was powering up this weird old convertible tablet (Compaq TC1100) to see if it actually works, and if I could sell it, and... IT HAD OPENSTEP INSTALLED!

So cool. I do NOT remember doing that, though it's obviously the sort of thing I would do.

Goddamn gorgeous UI.

Short trip to my retro outpost. Yes, we had #openstep on #solaris runtime back then. The dev tools never left the building the reason we never had further apps and #java was the strategy for #sun. So if you are a #macOS user, yes we had something in common for not too long.

In the museum, we also have a well-preserved box containing the NeXTSTEP 3.1 operating system and its documentation. Originally developed for NeXT workstations, version 3.1 was the first to support the i386 architecture.

Infinite Mac is a collection of classic #Macintosh and #NeXT system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a (modern) web browser.

Pick any version of #System Software / #MacOS or #NeXTStep / #OPENSTEP from the 1980s or 1990s and run it (and major software of that era). You can also run a custom version with your choice of machine and virtual disks. Files can be imported and exported using drag and drop.

https://infinitemac.org/

Decided to install and experiment with #openstep 4.2 from 1997 in #virtualbox today. I got bored and decided to try some old #operatingsystems for funsies. I’ve always liked the look and idea of the *STEP OSes honestly.

Have you ever used any *STEP OS before, and how was it? I’d love to know!

I want a proper ANSI color terminal for NeXT computers. The only apps from back in the day are lost to the sands of time. I contacted the author of one and he is no longer able to generate license codes, rendering it useless.

I think the best option would be to backport the Terminal app from GNUstep but my rudimentary programming skills wouldn't even get me started. I know there are others who would like such a thing. Maybe we could pitch in and pay a professional to do it. But how would we find such a person?

Got the NeXTstation back up and on the network.