Gobe productive on Haiku

Software Ports
1

Hi,

Gobe Productive 2.0 does not install on Haiku R1 alpha 3, any workaround it? I thought Haiku was BeOS backcompatible (not a dealbreaker though :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Chilizusa

2

The installer is doing something non-standard and therefore will not work under haiku. However if you can run zeta or beos, then you can copy the Gobe.zip file to haiku and install it from there.

http://haikuware.com/20071025128/gobe-productive-running-in-haiku

3

It installs for me in A3.

4

I just tried to install Gobe Productive today (on Haiku A3) and the only thing it installs is an empty folder and the install log. Anybody else have an answer on this?

5

Not a clue. What I can say is that GoBe Productive is extremely outdated. I tried using it for classes and couldnā€™t even import/export rtf files correctly. If I remember right - WebPositive did work well with Google Docs. I would have to try it again to confirm.

6

Youā€™re right. Gobe is extremely outdated and in my opinion is no longer ā€œproductiveā€ (pun intended).

Google Docs, as i remember, doesnā€™t work quite well in Webpositive (but i think that with the imminent new release of Web+, things will change); Zoho Writer at the moment works much better (and you can login also with your Google ID).

7

To clarify my issueā€¦ I actually have a purchased copy of Gobe Productive (bought it back in 2000 with BeOS 5) and I canā€™t get Gobe Productive to install successfully from the CD, but I did pull down the trial version from HaikuWare and that installs successfully. Are there any work around I should know about?

8

Has anyone tried the workaround detailed on this forum thread on HaikuWare? http://haikuware.com/blogs/entry/gobe-productive-running-in-haiku

9

I saw a mention in that article that the Haiku core developers have access to the source code of Gobe Productive version 3ā€¦ is that true?

10

I tried the work around and the Package Builder option definitely does not work as the Gobe installer is not of the *.pkg flavor. Is there any way to get the goods out of Gobeā€™s unique installer (must be some executable)?

11

If you can get ahold of a Zeta cd - it comes in a zip package.

12

I forget the exact details, but yes, if we signed an NDA (as I recall), we could have gotten the code and tried to fix it up for Haiku to release a newer Gobe Productive. But given the lack of manpower and the fact that most Haiku developers donā€™t like the idea of working on closed source software for free (well that was part of my concern), no one has yet taken on the project.

13

I forget the exact details, but yes, if we signed an NDA (as I recall), we could have gotten the code and tried to fix it up for Haiku to release a newer Gobe Productive. But given the lack of manpower and the fact that most Haiku developers donā€™t like the idea of working on closed source software for free (well that was part of my concern), no one has yet taken on the project.[/quote]
This story gets brought up every so often. It makes me cry a little every time I read it. :frowning:

Why do companies insist on holding on to so much good code when it serves them no financial benefit? Chop out the parts that arenā€™t copyrighted by your company, throw in a text file with a copy of the MIT license, release it as a zip file, and make the world a better place.

14

There are several big issues with GOBE Productive that prevent its distribution or running. The GP V3 source code is intermingled with 3rd party closed source code. It cannot be open sourced as it currently exists. This is a big deal. The second issue is the complexity of the GP source code itself. GP is probably the single most complex app and source code project ever to run on BeOS. It is huge. It was created over several years by a full time team of very productive developers. And the compiler changed, and this introduced a variety of compiler-dependent problems. And The code was ported to Windows and not back ported to BeOS.

A developer at GOBE actually spent several days doing an assessment on the source code. We were cheering and providing encouragement, because this would be a pretty big deal. But in the end, it was too great an effort and work stopped.

15

Since continuing work on GoBe Productive doesnā€™t seem to be an option, what do you think would be the best way of getting a native word processor for Haiku? The options I can think of are:

  • Port an application like AbiWord and ignore the fact that it looks different from Haiku
  • Port most of an application like AbiWord but write a new GUI for it using the Haiku API
  • Write a new word processor using the Haiku API
  • Something else
Last week I briefly looked into open source libraries that read / write populal document formats, in an effort to start work on a new word processor. It looks tricky. :/
16

From an ā€˜effort vs end resultā€™ viewpoint Iā€™d say the second option makes most sense as it would likely ā€˜appearā€™ entirely native.

From a ā€˜best of worldsā€™ viewpoint, obviously having a from-the-ground-up native application which tries to utilize as many of Haikuā€™s native traits as possible (database-style filesystem, translators etc) would be pure win but beggars canā€™t be choosers.

Haiku needs applications so Iā€™ll gladly take whatever we can get!

17

Port ABIWord ā€˜as isā€™ to get something running. Then optimize it for Haiku.

18

I forget the exact details, but yes, if we signed an NDA (as I recall), we could have gotten the code and tried to fix it up for Haiku to release a newer Gobe Productive. But given the lack of manpower and the fact that most Haiku developers donā€™t like the idea of working on closed source software for free (well that was part of my concern), no one has yet taken on the project.[/quote]

Ryan,

Didnā€™t one of the developers that helped you with WebPositive development (a couple years back) start work on a prototype for a suite of office applications?.. is there any status on that or is the code accessible??