Fundraising campaign

Fundraising campaign
netlabs.org is hiring developers for some time now, it has shown that we can advance much better in projects like this. We would like to continue that way to make sure that we can provide more and more applications on OS/2 and eCS in the future. To focus on the need of our users we will provide project proposals on this page with estimated costs to finish the project.

Just to clarify: The applications listed are not counted in the price for porting (except Eclipse which would be finished) but the biggest problem would be resolved for porting them. There are still other libraries needed by many applications, some of them are available on OS/2 and others not (yet). But with Innnotek GCC and LIBC we reach a stage where it gets pretty straight forward to port many of them.

GIMP 2.x and GTK2
GTK2 is the toolkit used for many applications on Linux, including


 * GIMP - The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
 * Evolution - An Outlook-like application that seamlessly integrates email, calendaring, contact management, and task lists, in one easy-to-use application.
 * GAIM - GAIM is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client which is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.

A GTK2 port would make it possible to port those applications to OS/2 and eCS. While some more libraries are used that need to be ported too, GTK2 is the most complex of those libraries because it draws the windows.

Estimated price for the port: not yet defined

Qt Toolkit
Qt is a complete C++ application development framework. It includes a class library and tools for cross-platform development and internationalization.

It is used by applications like
 * Scribus - Scribus brings professional DTP to *nix desktops with a combination of &quot;press-ready&quot; output and new approaches to page layout.
 * MusE - MusE is a MIDI/Audio sequencer with recording and editing capabilities.
 * Skype is a free Internet telephony client, closed source however.
 * PG Calculator -A powerfull scientific skinable calculator.

A quite long list of applications can be found at kde-apps.com and qt-apps.com, KDE on Linux is using Qt for its applications so in theory most of the stuff there can be ported using Qt libraries.

There is some work done for the OS/2 and eCS port already because a customer requested this. However, we have to resolve licensing issues and also to finish the missing parts.

The project to port QT 4 to OS/2 and eComStation is located here. The instructions to donate money are listed on that page.

Eclipse IDE and SWT
Eclipse is a very powerful IDE for developers, providing a lot of plugins for all kind of coding and non-coding issues. Eclipse itself is written in Java but the GUI-parts of it are not written in SWING but in SWT, the Standart Widget Toolkit which was designed for Eclipse but used in other applications as well nowadays.

netlabs.org does have an Eclipse porting project already and we would like to finish that. The first step to do is to finalize the port of SWT.

OS2World has a [Eclipse bounty] for the people or team that port Eclipse. Currently it is on $125 sposored by Juergen Ulbts, David Frey and Andreas Ludwig.

Some links to apps using SWT:
 * Eclipse IDE - Eclipse itself
 * Many commercial tools for software development, UML modeling and Business Process Modeling (BPM). uses Eclipse for it's core like Rational Application Developer, Rational Software Modeler, Rational Software Architect, Rational Method Composer,Websphere Business Modeler, Websphere Integration Developer, Lotus Expeditor(Websphere Studio Device Developer), Workplace Designer.
 * Azureus - a very nice Bittorent client
 * Lotus Sametime Connect 7.5 - A Instant Messanging Client for Lotus Sametime Server.
 * Lotus Notes 8 - The e-mail and documental applicaciones client. (Version 8 includes IBM Productivity Tools)
 * IBM Productivity Tools - Tool for Word processor, spreadsheets and presentation. (Suports MS, SmartSuite and ODF formats)
 * IBM Lotus Symphony - Tool for Word processor, spreadsheets and presentation. (Suports MS, SmartSuite and ODF formats)
 * Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) is being used as the core product for IBM Lotus Expeditor. Lotus Sametime 7.5 and Lotus Notes 8 are developed under this technology, allowing this products to be multiplatform (Linux, Windows, MacOS X)

Eclipse is a must have in our opinion, simply because of the fact that we do not have an alternate IDE that is as powerful as Eclipse available on OS/2 and eCS.

Estimated price for finishing the port: 6000-8000 Euros (that would be latest Eclipse & SWT)

wxWidgets
Yet another toolkit that is used quite often nowadays. There is an OS/2 port that is on a quite recent level and which is actively maintained. However, the GUI-parts of the port (PM) are a bit buggy and should be reviewed and fixed by someone with PM know how.

Our proposal is that this port will be fixed as soon as all other toolkits are done.

Applications that use it:
 * Chandler - a very promising Exchange/Outlook replacement for professional use. Not ready yet but the design looks great and the roadmap is in time so far
 * more on the wxWidgets homepage

Estimated price for the fixes: not yet defined