Editing NeXTSTEP (section)

==Overview==
NeXTSTEP (also stylized as '''NeXTstep''', '''NeXTStep''', and '''NEXTSTEP'''<ref name="kevra">{{cite web|url=http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/DifferentNeXTSpellings/DifferentNeXTSpellings.html|title=What's with all the NeXT names?|last=Ford|first=Kevin|year=2008| work=www.kevra.org|access-date=September 7, 2009}}</ref><ref name="confusion">{{cite web | title=OpenStep Confusion | date=January 11, 2000 | first=Tomi | last=Engel | url=https://www.objectfarm.org/Activities/Publications/TheMerger/OpenstepConfusion.html | website=Object Farm | access-date=September 21, 2022}}</ref>) is a combination of several parts:
* a [[Unix]] operating system based on the [[Mach kernel]], plus [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]]
* [[Display PostScript]] and a proprietary windowing engine
* the [[Objective-C]] language and runtime
* an [[object-oriented programming|object-oriented]] (OO) application layer, including several "kits"
* development tools for the OO layers.

NeXTSTEP is a preeminent implementation of the last three items. The toolkits are the canonical development system for all of the software on the system.

It introduced the idea of the [[Dock (macOS)|Dock]] (carried through [[OpenStep]] and into [[macOS]]) and the [[Shelf (computing)|Shelf]]. NeXTSTEP originated or innovated a large number of other [[GUI]] concepts which became common in other operating systems: 3D chiseled widgets, large full-color [[icon (computing)|icon]]s, system-wide drag and drop of a wide range of objects beyond file icons, system-wide piped [[Services menu|services]], real-time scrolling and window dragging, properties dialog boxes called "inspectors", and window modification notices (such as the saved status of a file). The system is among the first general-purpose user interfaces to handle publishing color standards, transparency, sophisticated sound and music processing (through a [[Motorola 56000]] [[Digital signal processor|DSP]]), advanced [[graphics primitives]], internationalization, and modern [[typography]], in a consistent manner across all applications.

Additional kits were added to the product line. These include Portable Distributed Objects (PDO), which allow easy [[remote invocation]], and [[Enterprise Objects Framework]], an [[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.<ref name="kevra" />