NEXTSTEP
Dual Developer
(Intel 3.3 on 4.2)

This is a repack of the NEXTSTEP 3.3 developer files for OPENSTEP 4.2, including the core DualDeveloper scripts created by Christian Starkjohann in 1996. The files were obtained from Peanuts-U.

The files in this archive have been pre-thinned for Intel only and will not be useful on other CPU architectures. See https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=6032.msg34508#msg34508 for the original DualDeveloper archive if you want to repeat the process for other architectures.

OPENSTEP's official development environment cannot be used to develop new applications that use the original NEXTSTEP API. This includes x86 drivers for both OPENSTEP and Rhapsody. NeXT's official advice was to dual-boot (!), but Starkjohann discovered that, since NEXTSTEP 3.3 Developer was perfectly happy to run on OPENSTEP, some sleight of hand would suffice for reconfiguring the system on the fly.

Installation

To install, open a Terminal and run the following commands:

	su
	cd /
	tar xvf <SOME_DIRECTORY>/DualDev-3.3-on-4.2.tar     (wherever you saved the archive)
	dev-setup install
	mkdir /Dev-3.3/usr/ucb
	cp /Dev-4.2/usr/ucb/* /Dev-3.3/usr/ucb/     (this fixes a mistake in the original instructions)

You may then switch between development environments with:

	develop 3.3

and:

	develop 4.2

The switchover process should be nearly instantaneous.

The dev-setup and develop scripts are located in /usr/local/bin and have the suid bit set, so you should not need to su every time you want to switch development systems.

IMPORTANT: As a side effect of how the relinking works, all the apps in the /NextDeveloper/Demos directory will be moved to /Dev-4.2/NextDeveloper/Demos, which will interfere with all of the services and associations that depend on programs located there. These include (but are not limited to):

	Sizing files in DarkForest.app
	Opening Draw.app documents
	Editing Keyboard.app layouts
	Running as Root or on Another Host with OpenSesame.app
	Viewing Photo CDs with PhotoAlbum.app
	Opening audio files with Sound.app
	Editing text files with TextEdit.app
	Viewing TeX files with TeXview.app
	Viewing 3-D documents with 3View.app
	Playing CD audio with CDPlayer.app

Services provided by applications in /NextDeveloper/Apps will likewise be impacted. You can mitigate both problems by linking specific apps of concern (as root, Control-drag all items except DDMViewer.app from your 4.2 Demos directory to the 3.3 Demos directory).

Troubleshooting

The Dual Developer scripts work by manipulating file system links. All of your installed files originally in /NextDeveloper, plus those files in /bin, /lib, and /usr that are also in /Dev-3.3, are given new links in /Dev-4.2. When you switch versions with the develop command, the list of files present in /Dev-3.3 is used to identify what to unlink, although /NextDeveloper itself is simply relinked directly.

In the event the machine crashes mid-switch, it should suffice to simply re-run the develop script.

Additional Software

These files come straight from NEXTSTEP 3.3 Developer CD and do not have any patches applied. The included version of the GNU Compiler Collection is a measly 2.5.8.

Downloading

This archive was prepared for the INDeX software repository by Rhetorica on 2025-08-02.

It is available at http://index.rhetori.ca/cdrom/OS/4.2/DualDev-3.3-on-4.2.I.tar.gz