NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating
system based on UNIX. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprietary workstation
computers such as the NeXTcube and later ported to several other computer
architectures. Although relatively unsuccessful at the time, it attracted
interest from computer scientists and researchers. It was used as the original
platform for the development of the first AppStore, The Electronic
AppWrapper, the first commercial electronic software distribution catalog
to collectively manage encryption and provide digital rights for apps and
digital media. It was also the platform that created the first web browser by
Tim Berners-Lee. After the purchase of NeXT by Apple, it became the source of
the popular operating systems OS X, iOS, and now watchOS and tvOS. Many bundled
OS X apps, such as TextEdit, Mail and Chess, are descendants of NeXTSTEP
applications. Overview
NeXTSTEP is a combination of several parts:
a Unix operating system based on the Mach kernel, plus source code from BSD
Display PostScript and a proprietary windowing engine
the Objective-C language and runtime an object-oriented application layer,
including several "kits" development tools for the OO layers
NeXTSTEP is notable for having been a preeminent implementation of the latter
three items. The toolkits offer considerable power, and are the
canonical development system for all of the software on the machine.
NeXTSTEP's user interface is considered to be refined and consistent. It
introduced the idea of the Dock and the Shelf. NeXTSTEP also originated or
innovated a large number of other GUI concepts which became common in other
operating systems: 3D "chiseled" widgets, large full-color icons,
system-wide drag and drop of a wide range of objects beyond file icons,
system-wide piped services, real-time scrolling and window dragging,
properties dialog boxes called "inspectors", and window modification
notices. The system is among the first general-purpose user interfaces to
handle publishing color standards, transparency, sophisticated sound and
music processing, advanced graphics primitives, internationalization, and
modern typography, in a consistent manner across all applications.
Additional kits were added to the product line to make the system more
attractive. These include Portable Distributed Objects, which allow easy
remote invocation, and Enterprise Objects Framework, a powerful
object-relational database system. The kits made the system particularly
interesting to custom application programmers, and NeXTSTEP had a long
history in the financial programming community.
History A preview release of NeXTSTEP was shown
with the launch of the NeXT Computer on October 12, 1988. The first full
release, NeXTSTEP 1.0, shipped on September 18, 1989. The last version,
3.3, was released in early 1995, by which time it ran on not only the
Motorola 68000 family processors used in NeXT computers, but also on Intel x86,
Sun SPARC, and HP PA-RISC-based systems. NeXTSTEP was later modified to separate
the underlying operating system from the higher-level object libraries. The
result was the OpenStep API, which ran on multiple underlying operating
systems, including NeXT's own OPENSTEP, Windows NT and SUN Solaris. NeXTSTEP's
legacy stands today in the form of its direct descendents, Apple's OS X and iOS
operating systems. = UNIX=
From day one, the operating system of NeXTSTEP was built upon Mach/BSD.
It was built on 4.3BSD Tahoe. It changed to 4.3BSD Reno.
It changed to 4.4BSD during Rhapsody. Legacy
The first web browser, WorldWideWeb, and the first ever AppStore were both
invented on the NeXTSTEP platform. Some features and keyboard shortcuts now
commonly found in web browsers can be traced back to NeXTSTEP conventions. The
basic layout options of HTML 1.0 and 2.0 are attributable to those features
available in NeXT's Text class. Features seen first on NeXTStep:
the system-wide Find Buffer the spinning wait cursor
In the 1990s, the pioneering PC games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, and Quake
were developed by id Software on NeXT machines. Other games based on the Doom
engine such as Heretic and its sequel Hexen by Raven Software as well as
Strife by Rogue Entertainment were also developed on NeXT hardware using id's
tools. Altsys made a NeXTSTEP application
called Virtuoso, version 2 of which was ported to Mac OS and Windows to become
Macromedia FreeHand version 4. The modern "Notebook" interface for
Mathematica, and the advanced spreadsheet Lotus Improv, were developed
using NeXTSTEP. The software that controlled MCI's Friends and Family
calling plan program was developed using NeXTSTEP.
About the time of the release of NeXTSTEP 3.2, NeXT partnered with Sun
Microsystems to develop OpenStep. It is the product of an effort to separate the
underlying operating system from the higher-level object libraries to create
a cross-platform object-oriented API standard derived from NeXTSTEP. The
OpenStep API targets multiple underlying operating systems, including NeXT's own
OPENSTEP. Implementations of that standard were released for Sun's
Solaris, Windows NT, and NeXT's version of the Mach kernel. NeXT's
implementation is called "OPENSTEP for Mach" and its first release superseded
NeXTSTEP 3.3 on NeXT, Sun and Intel IA-32 systems.
Following an announcement on December 20, 1996, Apple Computer acquired NeXT
on February 4, 1997 for $429 million. Based upon the "OPENSTEP for Mach"
operating system, and developing the OPENSTEP API to become Cocoa, Apple
created the basis of OS X, and eventually, in turn, of iOS. Apple
purchased NeXT in 1996, to use its more advanced operating system to replace
classic Mac OS, which Apple had been unable to modernize internally. Apple's
OS X and iOS are direct descendants of NeXTSTEP, through the OPENSTEP lineage.
A free software implementation of the OpenStep standard, GNUstep, also exists.
In popular culture The anime series Serial Experiments Lain
was influenced by NeXTSTEP and Mac OS. References may be found throughout the
show and its affiliated media, most notably the slogan for the Lain PSX
Game, "Close the world, Open the NeXT". The interface of NeXTSTEP 3.3 made a
brief appearance in the animated film Evangelion: 2.0 You Can Advance, as
Ritsuko Akagi's workstation desktop. Release history
Versions up to 4.1 are general releases. OPENSTEP 4.2 pre-release 2 is a bug-fix
release published by Apple and was supported for five years after its
September 1997 release. See also
Bundle Miller Columns, the method of directory
browsing that NeXTSTEP's File Viewer used
OpenStep, the object-oriented application programming interface
derived from NeXTSTEP Window Maker, a window manager designed
to emulate the NeXT GUI for the X Window System
Previous, an emulator for NeXT hardware capable of running some versions of
NeXTSTEP GNUStep, an opensource implementation of
OpenStep References
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of
Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing"
terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later. External links
A complete guide to the confusing series of names applied to the system
NeXT at DMOZ NeXTComputers.org
Video of Steve Jobs Demoing NeXTSTEP Release 3 on YouTube
The Next Step BYTE Magazine 14-03, Object Oriented Programming with
NextStep cnet.comibm-buys-sequent-for-810-million